Disasterpiece
by ClimatingTheChange
Summary: "My hands were made for a purpose. A purpose Sensei never told me about. A purpose that kept me from seeing the world. He just says the pain will be worth it. But I'm free now. Free from my father, his subordinates, and everyone that tried to break me. For the first time, I can think. I look at my hands, I see my quirk spiraling, and I ask myself... What are you?" Son of AFO AU.
1. He Who Had Gone Astray

**A/N: I would like to apologize in advance for the excruciating amount of detail in this chapter, but I feel this needed a little bit of world building, so what can you do?**

 **This chapter is meant as an introduction to this character and his relation to the events precedent to MHA. There are also some clues as to a couple of quirks that he possesses.**

 **By the way, if any of you guys see any mistakes please tell me, I tend to forget to write down some words when I form sentences, and I'm too lazy to edit when I finish. I could also use some advice on dialogue and how to make it seem more natural, as dialogue is something I definitely should improve.**

 **Additional tags are Drama, Hurt, Romance and Comfort. Enjoy.**

* * *

The heavy rain poured on onto the empty streets, the darkness of the night adding a touch of serenity to the otherwise boisterous noise and fast, rhythmic pounding of the water droplets on the hard pavement. Thunder roared in the dense greyness of the clouds, while meager bolts of lightning shone in the distance, claiming the area of the city as its own for the duration of the long night.

The roads, the alleys, the shops and anything outside of the humble abodes of the city's populace were devoid of any sign of life, the people having already scurried into their respectful living spaces in the time that news of the current storm had been announced. Even with the aggressive showers that poured on outside, the lights of every apartment building and house were shut off, indicating that the people had found rest within their homes in the intense rain.

However, such a thing couldn't be said to a lone child, running aimlessly in the barren city.

The pitter patter of the rain resonated in his hearing, being a suitable distraction from his overwhelming thoughts and visions, relaxing the boy enough to concentrate on his journey. His teeth gritted as the puddles of water that his feet stomped on dampened his clothing more than the rain did, making his plain white T-shirt and jeans cling to his juvenile figure. The gloves he wore were among the most wet of his clothes as he kept them locked tight on his arms, afraid that his quirk might hurt someone.

Despite this, the young man persevered through the tempest, even with no idea of where he was going. All he wanted to do was go in the opposite direction of where he was running from. He patted his left pocket, taking precautionary measures as to be be mindful of the important and only object that resided in his jeans, making sure that it wasn't damaged the rain in any way.

Though he had to be thankful for the storm. Even if it was still evident in his clothes, the blood on his damp, black hair and his face had been cleansed, and the empty streets provided him with a clear path where he didn't have to fear encountering anyone that would stop him and wonder what a bloodied child was doing running around.

However these thought were only brought to him by something else.

' _Turn left in this alley,'_ a gravely deep, yet familiar voice rang in his mind, causing him to slow down slightly to pay attention to the alley in question. With a sharp turn, the boy darted down to the alleyway, which, with the exception of the entrance, was bare of any sign of rain within, bringing a sense of peace to the distressed child as he kept on. Part of him still wanted to continue with the prior path ahead, but the voice that spoke out was a voice he trusted more so than himself.

Never in a billion years would he ignore someone that had helped him retain his sanity throughout his past.

' _Tha-'_

' _You may thank me later, young one. For now, focus on reaching safety,'_ the dark voice interrupting the incoming gratitude of the child. Even so, the boy nodded at it, the stench of the rusty dumpsters and trash bags invading his nostrils, momentarily twisting his face into disgust, gagging audibly as he felt his throat clog. His eyes watered as the smell intensified along the alley, continuing on with the objective it set out for him as it told him to go right at the end of the alley and onto oncoming rain.

The little exchange between the two entities diminished the adrenaline the drove the boys aching body, the consequences of the long time running finally reaching the boy's mind. His legs burned fiercely, the white pain becoming more present with each pool pounding step. His ragged breathing caught up to him as his lungs desperately tried to fill themselves with air again with every wheezing inhale and exhale. With an ever intense heart pumping, he felt like his chest would burst with beat as he struggled to maintain his composure.

The boy carried on as much as he could with his hounding pain, but, with a gasp of air, he eventually collapsed onto the concrete sidewalk, his face falling flat on a more shallow puddle. His body protested when he attempted to get up with shaky limbs, only to fall back down with another splash.

His breaths were heavy and in quick successions, enough to split the noise the intense rain with its sound. He closed his eyes as they burned from exhaustion and dirty water. The boy couldn't do anything besides lay there as his entire being remained unmoving, the non-stop running with no breaks having caught up with the child, visible through the spasming of his young muscles on tempo with his hasty gasping.

"Akuma…" the boy called out weakly in desperation to the only person that he could.

' _Netsui-kun, you must rise up and keep moving forward. If he finds you here as you are, all of our efforts shall become null, and there is no telling what his punishment for such a heinous act will be,'_ the voice reasoned with the child, trying to motivate the fallen boy into fleeing the scene. ' _Please, fight the pain.'_

"But it hurts… it _hurts_ so _much,_ " he said in a shaky tone, letting his built up sadness flow out in the form of hot tears down his cheeks, drowning out the immense rain that flooded the now deeper pond the child laid in. Akuma noticed the previously visible veins nearly popping from the boy's epidermis had now shifted back to their normal position under the skin.

In the boy's mind, Akuma sighed inwardly at this, feeling pity and empathy towards Netsui. It was a hopeless effort on his part to reassure him to get up. After all, any pain that Netsui felt, Akuma felt as well, with them sharing the same body, and it told him that he had excelled way past the limitations that his nine year old legs set. He commended his efforts to stay up throughout the night.

In the midst of the storm brewing, Akuma heard what sounded like, if his years of experience taught him well enough, a conflict up ahead. ' _Netsui, do you at least summon the strength to raise your head up? I believe I heard something,'_

With the last remaining strength in his system, Netsui turned his head upwards to look at the other side of sidewalk, a few blocks away from him.

As Akuma had suspected, there was a fight going on in the distance between two figures; one had a torn cape that covered most of his body, while the other towered the other in both stature and width. Regardless of this, the caped figure pummeled the tall one, with the tall one swinging his arms wildly and not getting one hit in. Eventually, the caped figure sent a finishing blow to the nape of the tall figure's head while it was bent over from another missed hit, causing him to go down with an audible thud.

Akuma looked on at the caped figure, its mouth protection mask and its hair with one long spike in the front appearing as he turned. ' _I recognize that individual!'_ Akuma exclaimed with widened 'eyes'.

"Huh?" Netsui groaned out with a sob, trying to make sense of his only companion's sudden shift of volume, and his increasingly difficult vocabulary. Before any thought came to his mind, he felt a surge of energy emanating in his being, jolting him from his saddened stupor. "Akuma, what're you-"

' _Go to that man and ask for help,'_ Akuma commanded with newfound purpose that left the child stunned.

"What?! B-but Akuma, I-I-I ca-can't do that. Did you even see that? What if they… th-they…" he trailed off as his sadness came back along with the painful memories of his escape.

Akuma, however, didn't need for him to finish to understand what he meant. ' _Netsui,'_ the child felt his right shoulder warming up, his friend's way of calming him down and assuring him of his intentions. ' _Trust me when I say this; we…_ you _can't survive long in this rain. You need shelter. You need a home. And I know you don't know where you are, so you need to put your trust in others to help you. Your father may have had some… bad things to say against heroes, but you've personally seen how he works and what kind of man he is, so you shouldn't listen to what he has to say. It's okay to rely on others on occasions, don't let your father's words change that fact.'_ Akuma proclaimed, dumbing down on his words to make sure the young man understood fully.

Netsui looked down at Akuma's speech, pondering on his limited options, before bringing his attention back to the caped individual, who was now carrying the tall figure, that had somehow shed his width and was now lean. "I don't want him to hurt me," he meekly responded, becoming unsure of the caped figures if he went through with his friend's plan. After the beatdown he witnessed, he was once again frightened for his life.

' _Netsui, I cannot promise you that he won't hurt you,'_ Akuma admitted shamefully, quickly regaining his bearings. ' _Nevertheless, I am able to promise you that, if such a thing were to occur, I shall be here to share the pain you receive,'_ the disembodied stated in the most selfless tone he could muster.

Netsui kept his gaze set on the caped figure, still hesitant on the final decision that was brought down. His best friend's words - the ones he was able to interpret, while the rest he could guess - resonated deep within his mind, bringing him back to the memories of the few good times he ever had, most of which were prompt by Akuma's influence.

' _Akuma…'_ Netsui checked his pocket again to see the state of his device. After finding it suffered no apparent damage, he sighed in relief.

' _Hmm?'_ Akuma raised a 'brow' at Netsui's change of communication from vocal to mental.

' _Thank you…'_ Netsui thought, smiling tearfully, with a building bravado.

Akuma paused for a moment to take in the boy's words, before chuckling lightly with 'grin'. ' _Anytime, my friend.'_

With a determination that outshadowed the doubt in his heart, the little boy stood up completely against the crashing rain, the energy Akuma transferred to him having an immediate effect on him as he was filled with vigor. He took off to a sprint for the caped figure that had distanced himself ever more than previously, yet instead of dejection, it motivated Netsui more. He just hoped that his shoulder length hair would cover the horns.

When he was in his father's lab - that stupid, _evil_ lab - he very rarely got to meet other people that weren't associated with his dad or that were forced to be there. The only times where he had set foot outside were on very few and far between, and when he did, he could go so far as his father had restricted him with his many boundaries.

Not to mention all the experiments… and the screams...

Netsui shook his head. Now was not the time to think of those things. What he wanted - no, what he _needed_ to do now was go to that man, that get help, just like Akuma said. One step after the other. One puddle splashing after another raining torrent. Whatever struggles that laid ahead of him, as long as he had his fellow mental roommate by his side, nothing would-

He jerked back suddenly, completely stopping in his sprint as he coughed out loudly into his hand, feeling a warm liquid escaping his mouth and onto his fingers. as he looked down at his hand, he saw blood, _his_ blood, unlike the blood from before.

'Akuma?' the boy called out in thought to his friend. However, this time he received no answer from the disembodied voice. Just silence.

He knew what this meant. He knew what was happening.

He heard footsteps coming to him nearby, and with slow gape to the source of steps, he looked at the caped figure, now closer to him and gawking at the young man, but his blurring vision didn't allow him to identify any remarkable feature besides his spiked red hair.

"He-e-elp… me… _please_ ," he was able to let out in a tone close to a whisper before succumbing to unconsciousness.

* * *

 **And that's it for the prologue. Now you all might be wondering;** _ **Climating, you beautiful man you, this story has such an interesting premise with a ton of potential and originality. How did you come up with it?**_

 **Well let me tell you, fellow stranger…**

 **I don't remember.**

…

 ***clicks tongue***

 **Expect the chapters following this one to be longer. Bye!**


	2. Secrecy at the Entrance Exam

U.A. High school.

The department of heroics.

It is said that the hopes of humanity frequented this exact same school in order to obtain the necessary qualifications to become a Pro Hero. This school differs from all the others throughout the nation as being the most popular in the rankings and the most difficult to get in, with over thousands of examinees failing to apply, without mentioning the dozens expelled and/or renouncing their progression from the course during the three year term.

If you are indeed able to proceed with the studies through its brute conditions, and graduate from this department, finding work in the near future in heroics, the reward will be quite a hefty. The world's top heroes are to have come from U.A., such as the recipient of the "Best Jeanist" award for eight consecutive years, the hero and fashion designer Best Jeanist. "Eraserhead", the cold, calculating, logical hero who worked within the shadows of the night, whose solitary gaze could render nearly all quirks useless.

The most notable one to be affiliated with such a popular establishment is a man who had an equal, if not greater, following, both in fans and Pro Heroes. The man whom the whole world looks up to as the Symbol of Peace, the "pillar" that maintains the spirit of salvation in the minds of the aspiring heroes and the hope of the everyday civilian.

This man was none other than the Number 1 Hero…

Endeavor!

…

'Wait, that doesn't sound right,' a teen tapped a finger to his chin while staring out at the colossal building in front of him, the students around him conversing among each other as they made their way into the respective doors encrypted with the number 1, 2 and 3, ignoring the boy in the long, black, slightly frazzled ponytail and shaggy, short facial hair who was deep in thought. 'No, no, I remember, Endeavor was the number 2 hero, the one with the track record of solved cases. If that's him, then who was the number 1 again? Wasn't it that muscle-bound dude that dad talked about on TV last night? What was his name again?'

The fifteen year old teenager continued on with his train of thought, now tapping his knuckles on the side of his head, accompanied by low groans as he tried to recall the man his father had talked about before. The teen bore an annoyed expression with a vein popping in his forehead, slightly ruffling the elbow of his standard black school clothing with his free hand, the gaping eyes that had witnessed the teen's actions came to a unanimous resolution - "What a weirdo" - before making their way to the designated building.

The teen opened an eyelid as a sudden name came to mind. 'All... Night?' he asked himself curiously.

He heard a disgruntled sigh beside his own thoughts, most likely from his mental resident. ' _You cannot be serious, Netsui-kun,'_ Akuma dejected at his friend's antics. ' _We have been through this prior to our way here… as well as on our way here.'_

'I know, I know, but there's just so many heroes that I learned in these few years that I can't keep track of all of them,' Netsui responded, making his way to the entrance of the faculty, his black shoes with white soles thumping silently as it was overcome by the surroundings conversations. 'Besides, the quirks that some of those heroes have could be enough grounds to put them on the number 1 position. Would've never guessed the guy with a simple strength augmentation quirk to blow away the competition,' he thought back to the time he caught the muscle guy on TV defeating a sludge villain, rescuing two students, and creating a tornado in the process. '...in more ways than one.'

' _Looks can be deceiving, young one, never judge someone based on appearance. After all, an innocent looking man who claims to hold back may have the power to kill you in the most violent manner,'_ Akuma proclaimed like a philosopher.

Netsui chuckled to himself. 'As you wish, _master,_ ' he responded back with a cocky grin.

Akuma hummed angrily, 'glaring' at the teen. ' _Don't patronize me.'_ he threatened his friend, though failed as it caused Netsui to laugh more heartily, earning him more attention as he entered U.A. But not before the disembodied voice added. ' _It's All Might, for future reference,'_

The teen stopped in his tracks, the gears in his head turning as he tried to make head or tails of this new information. Finally, he recognized the name of the famed hero with widened eyes. "All Might!" he exclaimed instinctively and loudly, having discovered the identity of unknown man at last, with a raised fist cast to the air, a reflex he had developed in his times of clarity.

"WHERE?!" the students around him questioned, frantically searching for the number 1 hero that they thought had been spotted in the school grounds. Several gasps, screams, tears and all sorts of fanboy and fangirl mannerisms resonated in the crowd, transforming the once peaceful and respective group of wishful students into a single faction hellbent on a mad manhunt for the Symbol of peace. Some of them tried to calm down the impending disaster, but were succumbed to either their own fanaticism to care or to the massive noise that ensued.

Meanwhile, Netsui walked along the hallways with a proud smile, thanking whatever entity made the path to the lecture hall free of any Japanese style rush hour traffic.

* * *

The teen sat at his assigned seat, gazing down at the ticket he was given before the Exam by a, what he assumed to be, Pro Hero whose entire body was composed of a hard, grey material, wearing brown garments. The ticket contained the seat he was assigned to, the battle center he was meant to take the test in and instructions and rules to be aware of during the practical exam.

Netsui couldn't read the instructions or rules properly due to the darkness of the auditorium. With a grunt, he folded the ticket and slid it on one of the pockets of his attire. 'I'll just pretend it says "Beat up the targets and don't act like an asshole" and roll with it,'

' _What constitutes a so called "asshole" in their opinion?'_ Akuma inquired with genuine curiosity. ' _And if done for good reason, is it still not allowed? We are here to fight villains to stop them from hurting innocent lives. It wouldn't be a stretch to say we'd do the same to the examinees who act upon a similar way, would it?'_

Netsui chose not to answer the question, opting to clear his throat and leave his companion to his own devices. He did not want to know the veracity of his intentions, or the repercussions if he went through with them.

He looked around the lecture hall, taking in all the different personalities that graced the presence of auditorium. He could see very diverse, visible physical traits in the audience, with one black bird student meditating in his seat, a white haired boy with multiple arms like an octopus, a girl with frog-like features, a boy with a speech bubble for a head, and another student who was entirely black. If it wasn't for the white hair, Netsui would've missed him.

These five students were among the ones that stood out for Netsui, while the rest had no apparent traits for quirks that he could gauge. He turned to the girl on his left, who was currently holdings her hands together in front of her with her head bowed down in a silent prayer. Even with all the darkness, the boy noticed her pale complexion in contrast. Instead of a regular head of hair, she had spiked vines adorning her scalp, with two vines wrapped around her forehead like a halo.

Netsui considered her to be cute and friendly, but she seemed busy with her prayers. Not that she blamed her. This school was known for having a very low acceptance rate. He should be just as nervous as everyone else, but he had too many surprises up his sleeve to start overthinking things.

Before he could go any further with his analysis, the wall of the auditorium lit up the entire with its lighting, bringing the student audience to the attention of the giant screen. The logo of U.A. spun on the screen until it settled.

On the podium in front of the screen, stood a Pro Hero who Netsui knew as Present Mic, the obnoxiously loud hero, who wore a black outfit with a large collar resembling old fashioned stereo speakers. He wore a smirk stretched from ear to ear, holding up a small moustache above his lips. From where Netsui sat, it looked like Present Mic was about to start playing some music on his turntables.

"Welcome one and all to my live performance! Everybody say 'Hey'?!" he shouted as per his character, only getting silence as a response, his words echoing throughout the lecture hall. "I've got shivers down my spine too, listeners," he continued with the same amount of cheerfulness in his speech, though his shaky shoulders betrayed his trust. "All right, examinees! I'll just move on to the main show, where I'll break down the practical exam. Are you ready?!"

Once again, silence filled the room as no one said a word. ' _Silent as a grave.'_

'Don't be morbid!'

"Yeah!" this time, his nervousness was obvious to all who listened, but he quickly picked himself up. "Now pay close attention listeners! We'll be testing your mettle by running a ten minute practice run at our replica city-district," he explained the procedure, the screen behind him showing a rectangle with "You are here" on it, followed by seven lines leading to squares lettered from A to G, indicating all the different battlegrounds present. "You can take whatever you like! Everybody gather at the meeting area to be then brought to your respective test location, ya dig?!"

He paused, letting them all process in the information before proceeding. "Now, there are three types of villains that will face in the battlefield, with points values according to their difficulty. Your goal is to use your quirks to dispatch as many 'villains' as you can and rack up a high score," he paused again to look at the crowd of students, stopping when Netsui crossed his vision.

The teen and Akuma noticed this with confusion and a little yelp on Netsui's part. They both could feel the DJ's burning gaze on him, along with his stiffening body and a forming frown, with Akuma sensing something else in the stare. Through the dark shades covering his eyes, he was able to identify another emotion, one he was very familiar with; anger.

He was glaring at them. Or, more specifically, at Netsui. And the rest of the auditorium was none the wiser.

"And don't even think about directly attacking any other competitors or any of that nasty, anti-hero crap, because that's against the rules! Capische?!" he maintained his glare at Netsui for a little while, before returning his focus to the oblivious audience with his signature peppy smile.

Netsui was left stunned by the interaction. Not only was he not expecting to be noticed particularly in the vast sea of heads, especially considering he didn't stand out - that is, if his horns weren't popping out - but he wasn't also expecting a rule of the exam to be reinstated when their eyes met. It was as if-

' _Netsui-kun,'_ the boy's train of thought broke when Akuma suddenly called out to him. ' _Take precautionary measures in the battlefield to not draw too much attention to yourself,'_

Netsui cocked a brow at his friend's unnatural behaviour. 'Is there something wrong, Akuma?' he asked calmly, unaware of the message of the interaction. 'You're usually not like this, at all. Are you still worried for my safety? 'Cause I already tol-'

' _It's nothing like that, Netsui,'_ Akuma sighed inwardly, debating on whether to tell him the truth or not. His friend was right on that regard; he didn't to worry him by piling on more stress. ' _I simply have this feeling of a disturbance in the nature of this exam,'_ the voice stated, still focused on the Pro Hero in the podium. ' _I believe I don't need to remind you of this, but the secrets you keep could spell the success or failure of this exam as well as your future. You may require to think ahead on some of your plans for this,'_

'Don't worry, I got this,' Netsui reassured him. 'It may not sound like it but I definitely developed some ideas that could get me through this, you're just gonna have to wait and see,'

Akuma hummed out, speculating on what his friend said. He said he had gone through the trouble of "developing ideas", but what he didn't understand was, why wasn't he aware of these thoughts? Hell, did he even think of such things? The only conclusion that he could come up with were that Netsui was basing his ideas on his instincts.

If so, he had to give props to the boy; he was trusting his instincts more and more every day.

' _My trust is engraved within you, my friend,'_ he declared proudly to his friend, pursuing his lips into a grin, before adding in a lower tone. ' _Don't fuck this up,'_

Netsui giggled to himself, briefly catching the attention of the vine girl and the purple haired boy seated next to him. 'I can't promise anything,'

"As a certain hero by the name 'Napoleon Bonaparte' once said, "A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes of life"!" when Netsui finally came to the reality, the presentation was in its closing stage. "Now let's move to the main event! PLUS ULTRA!" he yelled out the last bit. "And may you all suffer gladly the trials to come!"

All of the students in the audience stood up from their seats and exited the auditorium to the locker rooms to change into their equipment that they choose to wear to augment the power of their quirks or reduce their most prominent weakness.

Amidst the confusion, Present Mic looked on from the podium to the pony-tailed teen, hurriedly rushing past the crowd, with a furrowed brow.

* * *

He whistled, impressed by the sheer size of the buildings beyond the chain-link gate ahead of him. 'Wow, Present Mic wasn't kidding when he said "replica of the city-district". This place is huge!' he commented, fascinated by the effort put forth by the school. For such a big city, there must be a large amounts of 'villains' to occupy its streets. This thought excited him more, replacing the growing nervousness from the lecture.

' _U.A. High certainly spares no expense when it comes to realism,'_ Akuma added in an astounded tone, not as extreme as his friend. However he grew doubtful. ' _My mind can't help but wonder if such a robust construction is not a waste of taxpayer money, not to mention the costs to rebuild it all after each training, I imagine,'_

'Hey, if they're training the next generations of heroes, I don't think the public will care too badly where their yen goes. It may not seem like it, but people are more caring than they appear, give or take a couple of bad apples,'

' _There is still the lofty possibility of the school being subjected to an erroneous controversy which may very well cut the funding for the faculty, and if the backlash brought on by, say, the media is anything to go by, it might be a lengthy struggle. May the gods be on their side of that conflict,'_

Netsui stopped his stretching, having leaned into his right, bent knee during the discussion. His red bandana, carefully wrapped around back of his head, concealing his forehead, fluttered in the outside breeze. The outfit he chose to wear for the exam was composed of the bandana, black shorts that reached the bottom of his thigh, and the black and white sneakers, leaving his his lean yet muscular chest, his forearms and shins bare. His shoulders were tightly wrapped in white bandages, although the tightness didn't faze the examinee in any way.

To anyone who looked at him, he didn't look the least bit combat ready. With no armor, no weapons, no technological equipment of any kind on him and no abnormal physical features on his being, it left an aura of mystery around him that interested them the more they looked on. To unravel the enigma of the quirk of the semi-naked man who stood by himself, stretching in place with a calm expression on his face was enough to put a few people on edge, while others remained fixed on discovering any hints of a quirk.

And the boy would have planted fear in their judgement too.

Unfortunately, his funny faces made it very hard to do so.

Netsui squinted while shaking his head. 'I'm supposed to focus for my exam, why am I giving in to your talk of money and media?'

' _Now_ that _, is your struggle,'_ Akuma said, chuckling lightly at the end. The corner of Netsui's lips tightened in annoyance. Akuma then decided he had enough humor for the time being and moved on. ' _On a serious note, you claimed you had new ideas in regards to this test. I'd like to hear these ideas,'_

Netsu smiled, relieved that Akuma was interested in the strategies that he created in the coming days from the Entrance Exam-

"AAAAAND START!" the voice of Present Mic announced from the top of tower behind the meeting area, interrupting the exchange between the duo. As he said this, Netsui and Akuma were the only ones who took notice of the chain-link gate opening in front of them, with the rest of the students attention drawn to the Pro Hero. Netsui took advantage of this opportunity to sprint to the city replica, weaving past the stunned students in his way, earning him even more puzzle looks and agitated glares.

' _The gauntlet has been raised for us, are you prepared for U.A., Netsui?'_ Akuma asked, his voice growing wicked.

'Ready when you are, Akuma,' he replied, passing through the gate and into the streets of the fake town. 'How about we start from the third circle and go from there?' he speculated, putting his schemes into action.

Akuma roared with laughter in the teen's mind as the visions of his plans appeared before him, sending the desired power towards the boy's body. ' _Now you're getting me excited! HAHAHA!'_

"What's the matter?!" Present Mic yelled out to the baffled crowd below. "There is no such thing as a countdown in a real battle! Run! RUUUUN!" the crowd had finally gotten the message as they turned towards their own gates. "Consider the baton tossed!"

The adrenaline pumping through Netsui's veins, accompanied by the flow of power from one of his quirks and the exasperated words of the Voice Hero was enough to pursue his lips into wicked smile.

However, instead of the normal pearly white canines, his teeth had grown twice their size, giving him sharp fangs fit for a tiger.

"This is gonna be fun."

* * *

 **A/N: So this chapter was something else. Technically speaking, Netsui had just one line of exterior dialogue, which is nuts for me. Not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe neutral, but fuck it.**

 **Anyway here's the chapter, hope you like it, I know I do. I am proud of it and um… I'm uh, wha- uhm…**

 **I'm gonna masturbate bye.**


	3. Battle Center E and Aftermath

**A/N: This is just a quick reminder to you all to review my work. You guys might not know this but it's a great motivator for me to write. Hell, it's a great motivator for all writers. We live for that crap.**

 **And don't just write "Pls continue" or "Update soon" and leave it at that, tell me what you like or don't like about it. Say you find the story interesting, tell me what you think will happen, what you like about certain characters. Anything like that would definitely make my day.**

 **Also, there is a story that closely follows the same premise as this one, called "Forbidden Legacy" by Lord Terronus. If this story doesn't suit your fancy, you can go check that one out. Or check that one and this one at the same time. Or check neither and let us die in a fire.**

 **Where was I going with this?**

 **Anyway, here's this drabble.**

* * *

"A bit of a rough start I have to admit, but a promising one nonetheless." the small bear, mouse, dog hybrid in a tuxedo commented as he look at the various screens above his head in the Watchtower, showcasing several of the examinees who had entered the battlegrounds after a brief stall, with an amused grin plastered on his face. "Wouldn't you agree, All Might?" he turned his head to the skinny man on his left.

"Huh?" Toshinori instinctively whipped his head at the mention of his name, not paying any attention to the principal's question, previously focused on the students destroying the bots. He looked down at the source of the sound. "Oh, you're absolutely right Nedzu. I can feel the competitive spirit permeating in the air," he said excitedly, though a part of him felt anxious as his successor was nowhere to be found. "Is it like this every year?"

Nedzu nodded. "Certainly. In fact, I believe the contenders for this year are much more lively than ever before, most likely due to the prospect of the number one hero teaching them," the principal praised.

Toshinori couldn't help but laugh at his statement. "Well, I only have you to thank for the offer, otherwise I would've never even considered such a position,"

"Oh don't be so modest, you know I simply did what was right," Nedzu waved a paw dismissively. "It was the best solution in order to strengthen the mind of this generation of heroes while simultaneously keeping you from hurting yourself," he explained, taking a sip of his tea.

Toshinori, hearing his friend's low-key concerns towards his health, peered back at him apologetically, scratching the back of his head. "Ah, I knew there would be some sort of ulterior, emotion based motive to all of this, but for it to concern my welfare," he raised a clenched fist to his chest, morphing into his hero form. "I cannot express how sorry I am to forcefully put you and anyone close to me through this!"

"Please, Toshinori, converse your energy," the bear-faced man warned the muscled figure calmly. With a quick muscle deflation and a mutter of an apology, the principal continued. "You mustn't lose any sleep over this. After all, you're not just training the next generation of heroes, but also the next inheritor of your quirk. Which reminds me, where is he right now?"

Toshinori agreed with Nedzu's words, looking back at the screen depicting a shaking Izuku Midoriya confronted by a 1-pointer, with the green-haired boy frozen in place. He grimaced slightly at his apprentice's behaviour as the bot was dispatched by a sparkling teen.

Mouse ears twitched as they singled out a sound among the commentary from the exam analysts. Nedzu recognized the sound as footsteps coming closer to him, and with the rhythmic beat of the thumps, he smiled, knowing the owner of the sound.

"Present Mic, so good of you to join us again," he greeted the Voice Hero, who took a seat beside the principal, his signature smirk giving a clear view of his pearly whites. "I take it the briefing went well?"

"Oh yeah, couldn't have been better! I got 'em hung up on every word!" he affirmed with a passion.

Nedzu knew the truth of the briefing, but chose not to ruin the mood. "That is fantastic," he complimented. "But I presume you didn't take time off your announcements to receive praise from your fellow pros."

Present Mic nodded, his grin faltering for a split second. The principal could read him like a book. _That was the High Spec quirk for ya!_ "Yeah," he started, reaching for a file inside his black jacket. "When I was blastin' away the audience with knowledge, one of 'em caught my attention. He gave me a… funky feelin'."

Mic handed the file to Nedzu, opening it and perusing the identification. "Sh...Shinshi Netsui?" the hybrid animal asked out loud, emphasizing the surname. "As in -"

"Yep, the very same!"

"My goodness!" Nedzu blurted out, surprised by the revelation. "I never thought that the son of one of the legendary heroes would take this test. He could have gotten in through recommendations. He must surely have a goal he wants to chase," he quickly turned to Present Mic curiously. "Might I ask why you find him suspicious?"

"Well, it's just a hunch that I had, yet I couldn't help but see the similarities between this kid and another one that All Might described a long time ago! Way before this whole shebang even started!" Mic told the principal, who nodded in return, looking through the information on Netsui's file, coming across nothing that particularly stood out, other than his family name.

Nedzu looked up from the papers to Mic. "Who would that be?"

Mic spun his head around to the analysts, making sure that they weren't to the conversation between the two, before leaning into Nedzu's ear. "The one five years ago…" he whispered in the lowest pitch he could pull off.

Nedzu furrowed a brow, rubbing a paw on his chin as memories came flooding in. He knew exactly what Present Mic was talking about. In the fight that crippled All Might for life, he remembered the words that his friends said to him during his recovery, of a child who was meant to be rescued from the facility, the same facility that the maniacal criminal kidnapped all kinds of folks and heroes, to either conduct his sick experiments or to rob them of their quirks.

He also remembered the excruciating detail in Toshinori's description of the child, both in his innocent appearance, in his fear towards the situation around him, and to what he had committed before escaping the facility by his lonesome. For years they tried to uncover any leads as to the location of the child, coming up short on every investigation.

The security tapes of the facility were their only clue to his identity, and so far more questions have risen since then.

"This is quite the bold claim, Present Mic," Nedzu admitted, having thought enough on the circumstance. "Surely you don't expect me to act upon this solely because of their similarities?"

Mic raised his hand in defense, shaking his head. "Hey! These are just my observations, things to be taken into account for durin' the evaluations!" he rhymed exasperatedly, backing off for the exit to continue his announcements.

Nedzu gawked back at the examinee's files, taking in the news while focusing on the picture of Netsui. He glanced to the skinny man on his side, who was observing his successor with intensity before returning to the file. "Alright, I suppose that can be arranged. Now go on with your duties,"

The Voice Hero nodded, turning to face the door. Once he reached it, Mic gazed back at the screen that showed the semi-naked teen in question, currently fighting of a tirade of 2 and 3-pointers on top of the building that housed many of the 'villains' being thrown onto the battlefield, right next to the architecture containing the zero pointer. The Pro Hero cocked a brow at this. _If he doesn't start paying attention, he might not make it out alive._

* * *

 _Sometime earlier_

The 1P bot collapsed into a piles of bolts to the ground beneath the other 1P and 2P bots, who charged for the boy in front of them. The 1P bot reached him faster than the other, having reeled back its metallic right claw, ready to strike unmoving teen. "TARGET ACQUIRED: INITIATING MURDER." As it propelled its claw to the target's head, the teen reacted accordingly, throwing one of its own punches forward towards the claw, shattering it upon impact. The target gaped of its destroyed arm. "ERROR! MURDER FAILED."

Taking the opportunity to strike, Netsui leaped forward, thrusting a right hook to the 1P bot's head, ripping it from its neck and sending it flying to the 2P bot, hoping to distract it. It dodged the head effortlessly as it kept charging at Netsui, who planted both his feet onto the chest of the 1P bot in his momentum to finish it off, its metallic tail cocked back on his side, ready to smash and grab anything in its path.

Netsui merely smirked at his 'failure' as he stood unmoving above the crackling 1P bot.

The tail thrusted forth, connecting to Netsui's cheek, jerking him back slightly from the force. Planting a firm foot on the ground to steady himself, he pushed back against the tail ferociously, breaking the tip into the tiny pieces before driving an uppercut to the 2P bot's head. This sent it flying overhead, flinging its body to the window of a building nearby, crushing the 1P bot inside.

Netsui exhaled in relief, hands on his hips, glancing down at the work in the form of a short pile of destroyed 1 and 2-pointers laying on the streets - some with their inside machinery splayed out on the road, one of them having its head driven to the ground - and hanging on walls as well as streets poles and traffic lights, electricity crackling every so often from their bodies.

Netsui cackled, rubbing his sore cheek that held a small bruise, the unknotted ends of his bandana drifting in the wind on the rooftop.

 **Quirk: Chrome Bones - permanently alters the properties of the user's bone structure, giving him a skeleton that resembles corrosive resistant and hard metal. Makes it very hard to break or dislocate members, and attacks tend to be very painful.**

 **Its biggest drawback resides in the horribly corny name, given by none other than Shinshi Netsui.**

"How many points do you think we got?" Netsui asked out loud, not caring that anyone was listening in. The broken 2P and 3P bot that fell down from the walls drowned him out if someone was nearby. "I'm thinking we might be nearing the green if we fight there, but I have no idea what the cutoff is,"

' _...'_

"Akuma?" he perked up a brow at the silence

' _...'_ Netsui flicked the right horn that slightly protruded from his bandana, grabbing his attention with a yelp. ' _Don't do that!'_ he ordered angrily, disturbed from his thoughts.

Despite his outburst, Netsui sensed another emotion from his hidden quirk. "Why so glum? We're doing so well," he said,

' _I see that…'_ he sighed. ' _But this nagging feeling in the pit of my- I mean, your stomach has been bothering for some time,'_

He nodded in agreement, understanding his mental roommate's words. "You think these robots are way too easy too, huh?" he asked, even when the answer was obvious to them both. After all, the pressure in his stomach came from his own feelings. Metallic claws and jets were heard climbing and flying on the side of the building.

' _Yes,"_ he sighed again, crestfallen, contrasting the previous hype. ' _But alas, what am I to expect from an "entry level" exam?'_

"Hey, c'mon Akuma," he grinned as he went into a battle stance, the 2P and 3P bots coming into view. "It may be entry level, but this is still a 'Hero entrance exam'. Who knows, maybe they're planning something unexpected in the final minutes," he said while grabbing a lunging 2P bot and using it as a shield against a missile from a 3P bot.

' _True, such a thing might be anticipated for a school of this caliber- On your right-'_

"I know," he replied, blocking an incoming projectile with his open hand before sending it back to the 3P bot, exploding upon contact.

' _\- however the standard may be for a heroics exam, I'm still disappointed by the lack of action in this one,'_ Akuma reiterated his point, with Netsui stomping on the 3P's head and ripping out the wires inside. As the bot collapsed, the teen jumped back to avoid a tail attempting to grab him.

"6 minutes, 2 seconds left!" Present Mic announced from afar, his quirk allowing his voice to carry out out throughout the battle centers.

"I was kinda hoping to struggle a bit too, but we gotta focus on the now, Akuma. No use crying over spilled milk," he asserted, countering a tail whip by holding the tail, breaking it and smacking it against the head of the culprit. Much like the head, the tail blew up into broken screws, bolts and shattered metal.

' _Might as well,'_ he finalized, concentrating on the fight at hand. ' _However, your use of that phrase is incorrect as it typically means-'_

"Dude!"

' _Right, the exam, of course.'_

The battle between the villain bots and Netsui persisted, with the teen attacking and reacting as best to his abilities as he could, dodging and weaving past the missiles and tails, using his chrome infused members to shatter his opponents with ease, and even using one of his other quirks to maximise the damage from his throws. The latter had to be kept under control out of fear of the analysts - which Akuma assumed there were - spotting him among all the exam participants.

To combat this, he refused to go past the third circle in public.

The combination of all of the movement between the fighters, as well as the quirks used, took a toll on Netsui's body as he began to breathe heavily from the strain after his punch went through a 3P bot. He'd hate to admit it, but even with the path of destruction he made on the street, he guessed he still didn't have enough to pass the exam. 'Shouldn't have wasted so much time in finding their spawn point,' he thought.

Taking the advantage of his increasingly slow pace, a 2P bot slammed his tail on the side of the multiple quirk user, causing him to expel a river of saliva from his mouth.

Despite this, he managed to plant both feet on the rooftop, retaining his position to grab the bot by the faceplate and crushing it in his hand, dispatching it immediately as it fell. A 3P bot rushed forward towards to the incapacitated teen, who was busy collecting himself to dodge the approaching menace.

Netsui closed his eyes shut with his arms crossed to his chest, bracing himself for the inevitable impact of the hunk of metal against his bruised and sweaty figure. However, it didn't come. He took a peek at the 3P bot in front of him, seeing it had stopped moving about inches from him. He gaped at the 'villain', wondered what sort of force made it stop dead in its tracks, along with a sudden revelation.

"Hey, who took my points?!"

Just then, the building beside him came down, rocks and dusting covering the once fully windowed facility of the cityscape, bringing him out of his annoyed stupor. The earth beneath Netsui's feet shook as whatever came out of it made its presence known, a series of gasps and screams reaching Netsui's ears. The teen turned to look at the source of the distress, causing him to widen his eyes in stunned shock.

A colossal robot villain, the same size as the building it demolished, gripped the building on its side, its eight red 'eyes' glowed red, indicating that it was activated and ready to unleash hell upon the exam partakers. It locked on to the boy on the rooftop near it, who stood idle, gaping at the monstrosity that invaded the streets. On the side of its leg was the words '0P'.

Netsui knew very well what that meant.

Overpowered.

He smiled with his mouth agaped.

'Finally, a challenge!' a rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins.

' _Watch out!'_

'Huh?' Netsui's vision dropped from the robot to its arm, which was about to strike his localization. "Oh crap!" he cursed, whipping around to run away from the metallic green fist as it made contact with the rooftop. The shockwave threw him and parts of the building to the air, molding the facility into debris and dust and flinging his flailing body to the other side of the street.

Netsui could see himself, approaching the wall of the other infrastructure from its windows, with a panicked expression and sweat dripping from his body. Rocks accompanied him in the air behind him, and according to their trajectory, the teen and the large minerals would end up meeting in a very painful way.

The cold, rushing wind did very little to calm his nerves.

Acting fast, he twisted his body mid-air, positioning his feet to connect with the windows. A familiar energy flowed through his legs to the soles of his feet, wherein a semi-transparent, shiny surface appeared, halting his motions. Netsui hunched over and sprung off, launching himself away from the falling debris and the walls, clumsily repeating the process on each foot until he was on the ground safely, while the debris did its damage to the structure of the facility, leaving several holes on the windows and dents on the bricks.

Panting lightly on one knee, Netsui composed himself, giving the oxygen to his lungs. "I really hope that wasn't too obvious,"

 **Quirk: Crystal Steps - with this quirk, the user can create a crystalline surface on his feet that he can use however he likes, whether it be for running, jumping or using it as a shield. In order to activate it, it requires him to put his foot where he wants to use it. Unlike levitation, he can't move the platform from its default position.**

 **Kind of looks like someone cheating on a multiplayer server.**

Back on the streets, Netsui noted that the shouts of fears were more prevalent. He whipped his head around, gawking at the amount of students running away from the danger of the Overpowered 'villain' rampaging on the street. In Netsui's spot, they were a speck in the distance, meaning they had run into a safe place away from the 0P bot's path.

The goliath bulldozed through the neighbouring structures, rolling up on the same street Netsui rested in. Its arm caught the building the teen had avoided as it turned, leaving a larger dent on the side. It peered down at the boy who escaped him, a few blocks away from it, the glow intensifying as it stared Netsui down.

Netsui remained still, wrapping an arm around a utility pole on his left.

"1 minute left!" the announcement came, the exam coming to an end.

"I gotta hurry and beat this thing or else I won't pass!" he stressed, furrowing his brows. Had he not payed any mind to the bots' spawn point and focused instead on their location, he would be in the clear. Looking back, this strategy wasn't so fruitful as Netsui thought.

' _Netsui-kun, I advise not to fight this robot head-on,'_ Akuma stated worriedly as the goliath rounded his tank wheels to face him.

Panting slightly, Netsui let out a dry chuckle. "I wasn't planning on it." he said in a matter-of-factly, planting a firm foot on the base of the pole, splitting cracks on the wood. With a hard yank and a swift kick, the utility beam broke off, the cables ripped from their connection to the other poles as they fluttered to the ground, electricity radiating off the tears.

The weight that fell on Netsui was bigger than he anticipated. He struggled to the beam balanced on his arms, taking wobbly steps in all directions to not get the electrifying tip break, all the while manipulating the pole's mass to make it lighter. When he finally managed a good angle to steady himself, the 0P bot closed the gap between the two, standing only a block away from him.

Akuma was flabbergasted by what happened. ' _Why would you do this? Is this a part of your strategy?'_

"It is now!" he stated with tears of pain in his eyes. In order to stabilize the pole, he had to grasp the base, the cracked gashing his right hand. He howled in pain, his arm protesting to release the wood, but he persevered.

Netsui cocked the mast back, one hand holding the trunk with the other grabbing the broken base. The splinters cut deep into his flesh, making his hand bleed, yet he paid it no mind.

No longer struggling with its weight as it shifted, he thrust the now lightweight pole into the incoming goliath at blinding speeds, causing the winds to blow the teen back.

 **Quirk: Kinetic Discharge - this quirk allows the user to change the mass of an object to increase its kinetic energy and reduce the work necessary to put it in motion, granting it a much faster acceleration at a more constant speed. The bigger the mass reduction, the worse the drawback becomes.**

The electrified utility pole impaled the 0P bot in its head, the force and speed of the launch causing it to jerk, the tank tracks screeching on the concrete. The goliath seemed to pause in that moment, before shrieking in its robotic tone, the shocks circulating through his system.

Netsui watched on, panting, his right eye squinting from the pains on separate parts of his body, his arms completely limp on his sides. He saw the bot's erratic movements - erratic for a giant hunk of metal -, its arms reaching out to remove the pole, being alert for any trick up the its metaphorical sleeves.

When its arms were inches away from the mast, they halted, the intensity of the red eyes fading to black.

Netsui's expression softened, subsequently relaxing his aching muscles.

'Is…' he trailed off, unsure of what it all meant. 'Is it... over? Did we do it?'

Akuma examined the monster in front of them. It was bent over, it wasn't moving, its arms were as limp as Netsui's, and it made no effort to continue.

It was clear to him. They defeated the goliath.

' _Yes.'_ Akuma said simply.

"THE TEST IS OVER!" the Voice Hero called out, signifying the end of exam.

A victorious smile grew on his lips into full burst as joy filled his being. " _YEAH!_ " he shouted out in triumph, momentarily recoiling in pain when he tried to pump his fists up. Nevertheless, he laughed merrily at his victory along with Akuma, who let a chuckle escape his lips.

Many of the participants arrived behind him, spurred on by the celebration, wanting to see what occurred after they ran away. They gawked at the impaled and broken down 0P bot, along with a giggling half-naked participant with a bleeding hand, astounded at the scenery. A few of them remarked on how they recognized the teen as the same one they called a weirdo at the gate to the school.

Netsui glanced at the crowd filled with shocked faces, making him chuckle a little more, disregarding any worries over his horns. Not that he felt anything in his forehead anyway.

One of the participants, who Netsui knew as the praying girl he sat with, approached him, her hands held together. "My goodness, that was incredible!" she said softly, impressed by his performance. "Everyone fled frightened for their life while you stood and fought that beast. You are so brave, sir,"

Netsui couldn't avoid cracking a smirk at her words of praise. "Well, I only did what I thought was right," he told her the half-truth, sighing in relief. "Now that that thing is taken care of, I am guaranteed to take a spot on the heroics course, maybe even on the top of the leaderboard, who knows?" he said, oh-so-gleefully.

"What do you mean?" the girl tilted her head, the crowd imitating her motions.

Netsui looked at her incredulously. "Are you serious?" he asked, motioning to the 0P goliath. "Do you know how hard that villain was to take down? It nearly put me down with one punch, so it wasn't a walk in the park, that's for sure." he gazed at his work, admiring it, his arms lazily swinging like a pendulum.

"I'm sure it… wasn't?" she replied, confused with his point. "Regardless, why do you think that gives you an advantage?"

"Well, I'm hoping that this tough guy's worth, like, 10 points or something like that, if they award us the score based on difficulty." he said, still facing the mechanical obstacle. "That would be _reaaaally_ helpful here,"

The girl blinked, more than once, trying to comprehend what he had just told her. This boy destroyed a giant obstacle, basically that exists for the heroes to get away from… because he thought it was worth points?

Apparently, the crowd listened in on their conversation; she heard palms of hands meeting faces, 'huh's and 'Oh my god's being thrown around, and even a couple of obscenities targeted at the boy, calling him an 'idiot' and 'reckless'.

"Um… sir?" she called out to him. His lack of response showed that either he didn't hear them or he didn't care about the name-calling.

"Please, don't call me sir," he said as he sat down, relieved that the exam ended so well. "Makes me sound old. Netsui's fine,"

"Okay… Netsui-san," she corrected herself. "That bot you just beat…"

"Yeah?" he let her proceed, back still turned to her.

"It wasn't worth any points." she finally said.

The boy was unresponsive for a few moments, wherein the vine-haired girl worried she broke him. "Yo…" he whipped around, facing her fully with an unreadable expression. "You're joking, right?"

She shook her head. "No, I assure you I'm not. There was even another student with glasses that demanded an explanation for it," he clarify, bring her hands to her eyes to emphasize the 'glasses'.

"There... was?" he asked, his voice cracking, slouching over in embarrassment as the crowd groaned.

'Did you know that, Akuma?'

' _It may or... may not have slipped my mind amidst the… chaos…'_ Akuma trailed off, sounding not very convincing to the troubled teen.

She nodded. "Of course, everyone heard him," she cocked a brow at his obliviousness. "Were you… not paying attention?"

Netsui wanted to say no, that he was too distracted thinking about the Pro Hero's dirty look, but instead what came out was a squeal similar to a sad puppy.

"Are you alright?"

He didn't answer, opting to gaze down at the pavement in a thousand yard stare, wishing to be buried six feet under, where he could die in peace with his own kind; the worms and bugs, .

Yeah, that sounded good. Dying. Dying seemed like a good strategy.

"Are there any injured that need medical assistance?" asked Recovery Girl, the Pro Hero Doctor.

" _FUCK!_ " Netsui shouted sporadically, throwing his head back and scaring the girl near him.

"Oh my, no need to be so aggressive,"

* * *

 _A week later_

' _My opinion remains untouched; the exam went well, honestly,'_

'...'

' _Sure, there is some room for improvement when it comes to prioritizing enemies, but your combat skills are getting better, my friend,'_

'...'

' _It doesn't matter if you finished off the zero pointer for nothing, you definitely made an impact among the students,'_

'...'

' _Besides, you seem to have made a new friend, right, Netsui?'_

'…'

' _Could you at least take your mouth off the carpet, you're suffocating us,'_

Netsui brought his head up, gasping in a much needed breath of air before slumping down again.

' _Thank you,'_

It had been a week since the exam, both practical and written, was over, but to Netsui it felt like an eternity. He had no idea how well he had done in the written part of the exam, answering the questions with the knowledge he had about different types of quirks and their weaknesses. He was expecting to be screw over by questions regarding well-known heroes, but there were surprisingly very few of those. He was thankful for that, in a way.

Now the practical part was something only Akuma and himself knew about. When his dad had asked about it earlier in the week, he'd simply fallen, sprawled out on the floor of his bedroom and not gotten up for the duration of their conversation, as well as the day. His dad decided not to pry any further, muttering to no one in particular on how absurdly long his son held his breath. Not much changed since that day.

The worst part about it all was the woman that often came by the house. That blasted woman…

Netsui heard a knock on the door, followed by it being opened. "Netsui, are you still laying there feeling sorry for yourself?" the woman inquired, and from the sound of it she was carrying her broom and slippers with bristles on the bottom. She wore that whenever she would clean the house.

She was cleaning _his_ house. The same house he skipped cleaning for the past week.

'That damn woman.'

' _Mhmm,'_

He didn't turn to her, as he believed she was wearing her usual house attire, consisting of an orange sweater and no pants. The last thing he wanted was to taint his mind even further. "Don't you have hero work to do, Nemuri?"

Nemuri huffed indignantly. "For your information, today is my day off from a long week of crime fighting, so I thought it'd do me good to spend some time with my favorite little boy," her footsteps told him he was approaching, where she prodded him with her broom. "But apparently, he's too busy being a drama queen to appreciate my efforts,"

"Pfft, what efforts?" he chuckled rather obnoxiously, immediately regretting his words as Nemuri pinched his cheek, bringing him up to her, inches from her face, making him have to stand.

Lo and behold, his suspicions were correct - orange sweater, no pants, and glasses too! -. However, there also something else. She was angry, if her toothy snarl was any indication of it.

"Ungrateful little brat, you think I do this kind of crap just 'cause I feel like it!? You think I'm that shallow?!" the maddened Nemuri retorted, fuming from her nostrils.

Netsui didn't feel threatened at all by this. "I mean, it wouldn't be a stretch to- OW! Do you have to do that?!" he yelped when she pinched his other cheek, giving in a full view of his surroundings. Or he would have, if some white paper wasn't obscuring his vision. "Huh, what's this?" he asked curiously, pointing at the foreign object.

Nemuri huffed once more, releasing Netsui from his grip, rubbing away the pain from his cheeks. "Well, while I was touching up on a few chores around the house - you're welcome, by the way - the mailman came with the results of your exam," she stated, bringing the enclosed letter with the U.A. signature to his face.

Netsui's eyes widened, lifting a shaky hand to take the letter. "It's finally here?" he questioned, flabbergasted that the week-long infernal wait was over.

"Yes, and I want you to know that I was debating whether or not to-" she was caught off guard when the teen wrapped his arms around her in a soft hug.

" _Thankyouthankyouthankyou_ ," he repeated the phrase over and over, expressing his boundless gratitude for the woman that he 'hated'.

Still in her state of shock, Nemuri let the teenager hug and thank her incessantly. She certainly wasn't protesting to stop, it felt too nice.

When he decided to let go, much to her disappointment, he flashed her a sincere smile, then heading to his desk to open the letter.

With a grin of her own, Nemuri left the room to give him some privacy, her bristled slippers brushing the floor on her way out. She didn't need to know if he got into U.A. or not. This was Netsui's future and only he would decide where he was going with it. Mostly, she was glad his mood over the week changed when he saw the letter.

He was a good kid, when he wasn't insufferable.

" _WOOOOO, yeah!_ " the boy's peppy celebrations came at full force, the sound passing through the thick walls. " _I'm going to U.A. hahaha!_ "

Nemuri giggled at the noise, finding joy in the kid's happiness.

She suddenly realized that giving him a perfect score of 10 at the evaluations was worth it.

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, how in the name of hell did I manage to write over 3000 words for the Entrance Exam scene? I amaze myself sometimes.**

 **Review, fav, follow, jerk me off, stretch my arms, and all that shit.**

 **I need a break.**

 **See ya next time.**


	4. First Day Foundations

**A/N: OK, I was suppose to make another one of my smart, comedy gold jokes here, but the deletion of my last "chapter" (notice, whatever) made the site think I updated it, and now it forced me to apologize for the false update. I wish I knew that was how it worked.**

 **So yeah, sorry about getting your hopes up for nothing.**

 **Now that I know, I realize why many people prefer AO3. Maybe someday I'll make an account on that site to post my fic, maybe not. Although I'm leaning on 'no' at the moment, for one reason only:**

 **Too much gay… that's it… not that I have anything against it, it's just not my cup 'a tea.**

 **Anyway, about the "impasse", thanks to the comments of SparkFlameHero1, Victorsmyname and MasterOydessy, I have reached the final decision on Netsui's class placement.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter, seeing as something like this is rare, despite the fun you can have imagining these secondary characters and their uniqueness.**

 **Oh well, can't ask for everything.**

* * *

He stopped, planting his feet firmly on the ground beneath the arching gate, his sparsely torn purple backpack strap hung loosely on his right shoulder, being propped up by the teen's thump into place. His grey, full-length jacket with blue stripes across the shoulders, wrists and chest folds was left completely unbuttoned, revealing the standard white shirt that came with the rest of the school uniform, along with the red necktie adorning his collar.

The dark teal colored pants he wore displayed visible wrinkles on the back of the knee and feet, being evidence that a certain airhead individual had worn it to test it out during the wait until the first day of the heroics course, and forgotten to iron it after its all day use. A mouthful from an older, hormonal, unwelcome-in-his-abode - his words, not anyone else's - woman was embedded in his skull to forever remind him of that occurrence.

The same woman had also forced him to shave off the beard he was growing for two long years - and by force, he meant she used her quirk on him and shaved it off in his sleep - , so as to "not make his new class think he was some dirty hobo off the streets", as she so elegantly put it when he woke up. He later went on to make her beloved cat urinate on her hero costume as the ultimate form of revenge.

He had yet to hear anything from her about it.

' _As much as I despise admitting this, I agree with Kayama-san. This outfit cost us a fortune, it would spell bad omens upon us if we were to ruin it right away,'_ Akuma informed in the boy's mind.

'Oh be quiet, you say that to anything over 10,000 yen. You weren't the one paying for it either,' Netsui interjected.

' _Of course not, how preposterous. Do you expect an entity that exists only in the mind of lazy teenager with too much free time to be responsible for his finances?'_ the disembodied voice retorted.

'Then why're you even bringing this up?' he asked exasperatedly, ignoring the playful insult.

Akuma heaved out. ' _It's merely something to keep in mind,'_ he thought out in a matter-of-factly. ' _Since you plan on growing into a heroic mindset, you must always be mindful of collateral damage at all times,'_ he concluded in a fatherly tone.

'Says the guy who seconded the cat piss plan,' he deadpanned.

' _That was entirely within reason,'_

Netsui rolled his eyes at his friends overly-protective nature. Knowing Akuma as much as he knew Netsui, the mental roommate wouldn't let up anytime soon in respects to his health and future, like an overprotective mother. It was appreciated however, and he wouldn't have it any other way, though he could tone it down at times.

He took a prolonged whiff of the spring air, breathing in the pleasant and very exclusive aroma of school grounds into his nostrils, a much more welcoming experience than what he endured at home.

A cackle escaped Netsui's lips, hands on his hips and standing confidently on his spot at the gates, as he managed to snatch his dream of entering the school. The once intimidating entrance gate and gigantic buildings had all but lost its original grandiose distinction in the eyes of the curious teen, being replaced by magnanimous accomplishment.

Only 36 people pass the entrance exam every year. That is a less than 1 in 300 chance someone will pass - and Netsui was one of them. Just imagining the look on the faces of the people who knew him finding out about his acceptance made him sigh in content. He'd pride himself with that image for weeks to come. Netsui pondered on whether the vine girl passed and was in his class.

Shaking his head out of his daydreaming trance, Netsui paced himself towards the main door of the allotted course building. The journey was a bit of trip to the teen, having never been to someplace this big in his entire life left him with a minor anxiety forming at the pit of his stomach.

On his way to Class 1-B, he familiarized with his surroundings, taking in the few other students occupying the hallways, talking amongst each other, all of them with smiles spread on their faces. He could hear the back and forth congratulations and the gossip about others' entrance to the school, particularly from a louder pink skinned girl on her phone, flailing her arms around in her excitement.

The multiple quirk user grinned and lightly chuckled, her enthusiasm contaminating his own psyche as she ended her call, her grin still strongly present. With a shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders, he proceeded on walking as the pink girl skipped to greet another cheerful, redheaded student, who gawked at the frazzled, pony-tailed teen with a quizzical visage.

Reaching up the stairs to another floor, he continued his way to his classroom, stopping as he noted the right side of the building was barred by a railing, preventing anyone from breaking or touching the large windows that gave him a clean view to the outside.

So far, the school had surprised him with the immensity of the city-replica in the entrance exam, now it blew his expectations as he witnessed the abundant vegetation around the buildings. Even Akuma was impressed; for months he thought the praising the hero faculty got was blown out of proportions by the eccentric folk, but what he was seeing clearly denied that entirely.

Now he understood his father's jubilance at his acceptance.

* * *

" _DAD! I'M GOING TO U.A!"_

" _THAT'S MY BOY!"_

" _AAAAAAH!"_

" _AAAAAAH!"_

" _ **AAAAAAH"**_

* * *

Reaching his classroom - which wasn't difficult to see, the giant "B" painted on the fifteen foot monument of a door could be seen by the blind -, he braced himself with an inhale, mentally preparing for the upcoming interactions typical of any class. He slid the door to the side and stepped inside as the anxiety grew.

Netsui predicted being greeted by a cacophony of prying eyes and soft murmurs, anticipating the arrival of his classmates being prior to him. He felt surprised when, apart from the bulky teacher skimming through the desk papers that stared at the boy who entered, only four students in total filled the otherwise vacuous classroom; a kempt blond boy fondly looking out the window, head supported by a hand, and two girls conversing one-sidedly near where Netsui stood.

The three turned to the teen who entered the room, the girls pausing mid-talk while the blond _tsk_ ed for a reason Netsui couldn't understand, before returning to their respective activities.

The teacher placed his papers on the desk, scratching his silver, spiky hair and picking up a clipboard and a pen on the side in the upper desk drawer. He glanced up at the teen.

"Good morning," he accosted monotonously, standing up from his desk, giving Netsui a glimpse of his hero costume. He wore a red and black spandex with silver knee-high boots, three-tier belt and wrist guards. On his left wrist guard was a tube connecting to the top of his spine. A gamboge colored mask adorned his face, covering just above his cheeks and nose. "Name please?" the teacher's tone was calm, but authoritative. His furrowed, vermilion eyes peered down at Netsui with an intensity that sent a shiver up his spine.

Swallowing a lump of nervousness, he grinned widely, masking his uneasiness. "Sh-Shinshi Netsui." he answered hesitantly, repositioning his falling backpack. Nodding, the teacher scribbled a quick check beside Netsui's name before sitting back down. Netsui took note of his new teacher's underbite and protruding canines as he picked an empty seat near the girls.

"Mind if I sit here?" he inquired the girl with dark, shoulder-length hair while tapping the table in front of her. With a curt nod, he sat down, letting his backpack fall to the table leg. "Thanks,"

Netsui relaxed in his chair, propping a knee on the chair, close to his chest and wrapping an arm around it. He rested on it, waiting patiently for the class to begin. From the look of things, it was going to be a long wait session, which meant he would be bored very quickly.

Which meant Akuma would be bored. Which meant more money talk. Which Netsui wasn't looking forward to. He struggled to understand what taxes were, he didn't want to do with anymore economical topics until he figured that out.

Fortunately, a gentle tap on his shoulder rattled his train of thought. Drifting his eyes to the source, he stared at the girl with strawberry orange hair and green eyes, a soft smile gracing her lips. "Hey, Shinshi, was it?" she half-asked, having heard the teacher announce his presence, before continuing. "You looked kinda lonely there. Wanna talk?" she offered, with the dark-haired girl nodding nonchalantly.

Netsui cocked a brow. Did he inadvertently make himself look lonely? "Oh, I did?" he asked rhetorically. "That wasn't intended, actually. I was just thinking about the entrance exam, is all. Sorry if I was bothering you," he lied apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, no, it wasn't a problem at all, Shinshi," she shook her hand, the other girl's head imitating its movement. "We were just talking about the same thing," she informed him. "I'm Kendo Itsuka, by the way," she motioned to her friend. "And this is Kodai Yui."

"Pleasure to meet ya, but please, call me Netsui. Shinshi is my dad's name," Netsui insisted.

Itsuka and Yui were taken aback by this, not expecting another student to want be treated so informally already. Normally, in typical japanese fashion, one would traditionally wish to be called by the family name, but not this boy. Maybe this was the american transfer student they were informed about. If so, he must have some stories to tell, but they digressed.

Nodding, Itsuka brought her head closer to him. "Have you heard about the incident at Battle Center D, about the girl with the cutting leg wind quirk?"

Netsui perked up at the odd choice of terms for the quirk description 'That's… unique,' He thought to himself. "D? I don't think I've heard anything about it," he mumbled. "Why? What happened?"

' _I can hazard a guess, considering the portrayal of the quirk itself,'_ Akuma said, whispering the last part.

"She got kicked out mid-exam for going against the rules and acting like an anti-hero. I've heard the cops had to be called in to arrest her,"

"What?!" Netsui yelled, receiving a warning 'sh' from the teacher to quiet down. He complied. "Really? That's terrible!"

"Yeah, it seems that girl in Battle Center D injured multiple competitors and nearly decapitated one," she gossiped, the student in front of her cringing at the mental picture. "Apparently it cost most of them the shot at the heroics course. If Eraserhead didn't intervene at the time, she'd probably do some seriously irreparable damage,"

' _This individual acted upon their 'anti-hero' tendencies. She sounds mentally unstable if this is accurate,'_ Akuma pondered, with Netsui listening intently on both the girl and his friend. ' _From a child, no less. This little woman was most assuredly compelled by personal motifs - a grudge, mayhaps?"_

'Maybe she was a two-bit criminal that just wanted some petty revenge out on the heroes, like a villain would," Netsui countered, worry overtaking him. 'I hope the participants are okay. God knows what it's like to face a psychopath like that,'

' _Even so, we should have heard of this from Nemuri. She was a judge, after all,'_

'That old hag!'

' _Precisely.'_

"Is something wrong?" the girl looked awkwardly at Netsui while her friend covered her mouth, giggling faintly. "You're making some really funny faces there,"

"Huh?" he asked innocently, but his expression made it seem like grumpy disdain, with his forehead and nose wrinkled, and a comically deep frown. He realized this, and softened his features. "Oh sorry about that, thinking again,"

"You do that pretty often, huh?" she tapped her chin, tilting her head.

"Kinda," he let out hastily, opting to bring back the subject. First day and someone already knew of his habit. 'New record, woo,' he thought, downtrodden. "Anyway, where did you get this info? I know one of the judges and she never told me anything about it."

"Kodai was assigned to the same battlefield, so she saw the commotion up close," she explained, a bit bitterly as she continued. "She nearly cost her this spot too," The bob haired girl nodded near her, agreeing with Itsuka. Yui still looked as uninterested as ever, but her eyebrows rose and furrowed slightly, indicating faint disquiet, Netsui thought.

"Netsui?" another female voice called out to him. It didn't sound like Itsuka, and Yui hadn't opened her mouth to speak so it must've been someone else. Pulling his focus, he caught the sight of the vine girl from exam at the door, surprised to the airheaded teen in her class. Accompanied her was a aggressive-looking, grey haired boy with thick, yellow eyelashes.

The male approached him first with stormy steps. "So you're the guy that pummeled that huge obstacle like it was nothing?!" he said, tone laced with ardor.

' _Such an overstatement!'_

"I… I guess so…?" Netsui became uncertain. 'Pummeled' was definitely not the word he'd use to describe his conduct against the robot. It might so happen that he was confusing him with the other student, but then again, who else could've destroyed that thing?

"Oh man, Shiozaki told me everything. Let me tell ya, if the heroes didn't split us up by partnerships, I woulda totally loved to see the fight. Ah! Why couldn't I've taken your place, Ibara?" he asked, irritated, turning to the vine girl.

Shiozaki Ibara. So that was her name. Netsui needed to remember that.

"Wait, you were the boy from Battle Center B, who took down the zero pointer with a single punch?" Itsuka adjoined her new classmates. Netsui went to answer but Ibara chimed in.

"No, we were in E. He broke it down with a conducting utility beam," Ibara clarified on Netsui's behalf. At this point, the blond boy has lost interest with the outside view, finding the discussion between the five to be much more entertaining, alongside a student with naturally wide pupils.

"Hold on, someone _else_ wrecked that thing?!" the literal metalhead exasperated, mouth agape at the new information. Two people destroyed the 0P bot and he wasn't there for either of them. "God damn it, I missed out on so much! So unlucky!"

' _Hmm, so there was another person that managed to destroy the behemoth,'_ Akuma pondered, with Netsui listening intently on both conversations from outside and inside. ' _An enemy of that caliber couldn't possibly be brought down by a simple long or short-ranged quirk. Especially with a student's natural lack of quirk experience."_

'They've gotta be in 1-A, for sure. If I beat that thing with difficulty and got here, then they did too, for sure,'

' _One punch was all it took…'_ Akuma contemplated silently, trying to devise a possible theory for the aforementioned effortlessness the B Center student took, coming up empty in the end. ' _What quirk is strong enough to inflict such destruction?'_

"Alright, everybody settle down in your seats. Class is about to start," the rough teacher announced, breaking the multiple quirk user's inner dialogue. Somehow the rest of his course classmates made their way in and around him, talking amidst themselves as Netsui was becoming friendly with Itsuka and Yui. The way they managed to slip by Netsui's senses made him guess that at least one person in class had some kind of invisibility or phasing quirk, where they could pass through his sights without being seen. If he had to guess, it would be that guy whose mouth looked like a zipper.

The classroom, now packed with the 1-B roster of pupils, quieted down as per his request and intense gaze. "Before we start off, I'd like to formally congratulate you all on your success in the Entrance Exam," right after he said this, cheers resonated throughout the room, the class congratulating one another briefly before settling once more at the teacher's raised hand. "Yes, you're all among the thirty students to pass the highly demanding exam, something to be extremely prideful for. But don't think you'll be on easy street from here on out," the sudden shift in timber threw the class off, stiffening their bodies in fearful anticipation.

"I need you to take one thing into consideration about this school; just as you have all the freedom to use your quirks as you see fit - within boundaries, that is -, so does our style of education," he explained, peering around at everyone in case they let out a peep. "This is the Hero School of the highest prestige in the country, as well as a good portion of the world, for good reason. We only allow kids like you, with the greatest potential, to partake in this course and we plan to drive out that potential with rigorous and strict training regimens with very little breaks, if any at all."

"If you're here thinking that this is merely a higher level of education than any other high school, you're sorely mistaken. We expect much from you and we will do anything possible to meet and break those expectations. If you at any point in time during your stay here have any concerns regarding our so called 'unfair treatment' or 'tumultuous activities' we 'force' upon you, I have only one thing to tell you," he then motioned to the entrance to the classroom. "The door is that way. Hope you enjoyed your stay,"

A considerable amount of pupils shook at the lecture, the gravity of the situation hitting them like a ton of bricks. Beads of sweat dripped down their individual foreheads, eyes like pinpricks as they clung to the last bit of hope they had. Never in their life would they assume this would be easy, but hearing it directly from a Pro Hero of the difficulty drove the point home tenfold.

On the other hand, Netsui was in the same boat as his class, sweating profusely and audibly shaking, though for different reasons. If this school was as demanding as the teacher said it would be, he would have to pull out all the stops to ensure progress. He just prayed that he didn't have to resort to his other quirks too much.

The teacher, satisfied with the reaction of the crowd to the seriousness of the course, continued in a more positive tone that was lost among the nervous children. "Welcome to the Heroics Course. I'll be your homeroom teacher for this year - Kan Sekijiro, or as you may know me better as my alias, 'Blood King'."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys I might just make the AO3 account after all because I think I might get more attention than I do here. Which is great cause I like attention i'm an attention whore and im deprived of physical affection my family beats me up im a loser help *inner pain intensifies*.**

 **I was also thinking about adding another scene that follows the end of the day, given that this isn't Aizawa's class and they might do the ceremony and shit but then I thought "Licking doorknobs is illegal in other planets" then I laughed at memes and forgot what my original plan was.**

 **Just kidding, I didn't. I'm a genius after all**

 **Come back next chapter where I'll be telling you all what kind of women I like. Stay tuned readers.**


	5. The Median

**A/N: I like thicc women. They give me life.**

* * *

The hot camomile pervaded in his mousy snout, its crisp apple fragrance massaging his smell receptors and calming his already carefree disposition, despite the amount of paperwork stacked on his desk. Nedzu tentatively brought the cup to his lips and sipped on the herbal liquid, sighing contently as his taste buds rejoiced with the pleasant flower flavour.

Placing the cup aside, he pawed at the student file beneath him, opening it to its first page. On the corner of the paper stood a clipped picture of a student that had garnered a fair amount of concern from a Pro Hero/school educator. Underneath the picture, the papers detailed said student's characteristics along with the U.A application.

 _Name: Shinshi Netsui_

 _Age: 15_

 _Written Exam Score: 45 Points._

 _Practical Exam Score: 60 Points - 7th place. Tied with Midoriya Izuku._

So far, the information provided satisfied the faculties standards in terms of the requirements for the entrance as well as Nedzu's convictions towards Shinshi's potential, if not for the fact that his father was a Pro Hero in his own right. Truth be told, nothing out of the ordinary was visible for the most part in his application, aside from the trifling coincidence of his exam placement.

One part, however, did vex the principal more than usual.

 _Quirk: Strength Enhancement. Stronger than the average man._

The vague quirk name, its malformed description by the boy's adoptive parent, and the lack of ascendancy in the young man's quirk genetics cluttered Nedzu's thoughts with worry and dubiety. His ears twitched instinctively, coming to no immediate consensus regarding Present Mic's suspicion towards the boy. He knew Hizashi wasn't one to act based on mere whims, and despite the subtle resemblances between Netsui and the boy from the incident five years prior, he couldn't for the life of him or the student draw precipitated conclusions.

"I do apologise, Present Mic, but I have to conceal this for the time being," Nedzu admitted personally, pulling open a cabinet behind him and stuffing Netsui's file inside in its rightful position. "Whether this clumsy attitude of his is an affront or not I cannot deduce. I'll just have to see how he develops through Sekijirou's class reports, so I must trust Aisuru's words over yours. I hope you can forgive me for this,"

After making sure the file was neatly organized to his meticulous liking, he lifted up another one a couples of rows beside it. "On the other hand," he kicked cabinet closed and rolled back to his desk in one fell swoop. Nedzu parted the file pages, catching the picture of another female student, this one marked ' **REJECTED'** across the papers. "I have some more urgent matters to attend to," he said, scanning the papers beneath the red mark.

 _Name: Ushina Fukushu_

 _Age: 16_

 _Quirk: Tempest Kick_

* * *

"Holy crap!" Tetsu, as Netsui came to know him shortly after introductions, goggled at the scene before him; the hundreds of U.A students spanning the school grounds in front of the wooden platform went as far as the eye could see. The polarity between the humdrum school uniforms and the varying sizes and facets of the students made good promise on the diversity of quirks the school maintained pride in.

All of the different courses appeared during U.A.'s opening ceremony; the business course, with the second and third-years selling miscellaneous items to the growing audience, the support courses, with the finalists waiting fairly impatiently for the beginning of the speeches, general studies, who scanned everyone around them, with the exception of one drowsy eyed student, and, last but certainly not least, the classes incorporated within the heroics course.

However, for some unknown reason that neither Netsui nor Akuma could place, Class 1-A was nowhere to be found. A fact which drove Blood King to question. "It can't be, Aizawa isn't this heartless…" Sekijirou mused, stroking his chin in thought, though he was loud enough for some 1-B students, including Netsui, to hear. Turning towards his class, Blood King clapped his hands, prompting the class to focus on him. "Everyone, I need to take care of something, I'll be right back. Don't leave this area 'till I come back." he ordered sternly, making his way further from the students.

"Boy, what a turnout," another livelier voice spoke out, this time female, belonging to a Setsuna Tokage, with a hand pressed to her forehead to block out the rays of sunshine, looking out at the platform as one of the upperclassmen attempted to give his speech to the crowd but nothing came out. "Looks like we have a ton of people to impress,"

"Or disappoint," pressed a baby blue haired boy named Shoda Nirengeki, fidgeting nervously in his spot. The upperclassmen gazed down at the wooden boards as an alternative to the gawking faculty, before another smiling classmate tapped his back in congratulations for his efforts, approaching the podium and continuing where the other left off. "E-even the th-third-years are cracking under the pressure,"

Netsui, having heard the boy's stuttering mess, placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Nirengeki-"

"My name is Sho-"

"Whatever, dude, listen," Netsui interrupted the boy's explanation, making Nirengeki gasp softly at his dismissal of honorifics, yet did as instructed. "Calm down, alright? I'm pretty sure that that guy over there," he pointed to the aforementioned anxious upperclassmen, now sulking in the non-existent corner wall of the podium. "Has some unresolved issues of his own to be shaking in his boots in front of hundreds of people. Hell, I've heard stage fright is one of the most common phobias that pros have, so I wouldn't worry too much,"

"It's quite true," Shishida Jurota chirped in beside Netsui, his gruff yet sophisticated tenor catching both their attention. "It is also a major contributing factor for the reasoning behind a professional hero's choice to remain a non-participant towards media exposure, although a good majority claim otherwise," he stated in a matter-of-factly, pushing his glasses back in position.

"That's nice and all, but why did you come here all of the sudden?" Netsui inquired. If he remembered correctly, during Class 1-B's journey here Jurota was entirely enrapt with the foreign exchange students, asking them about their countries' cultures and customs and generally being a socially adept person.

"Your scent captivated me, so I came," Jurota simply answered.

Netsui opened his mouth to counter him, but closed it shortly after. Of all the things he was expecting to hear from such a sophisticated gentleman, that wasn't one of them, nor did he expect such bold phrasing.

'Um… Akuma, you got anything to say back?' he asked internally to the mental entity, who was suspiciously quiet throughout the ordeal.

' _Don't ask me, my friend. In all my years on this earth, I have never heard such ludicrousy.'_ Akuma asserted calmly.

Netsui squinted at the familiar quote. 'Wait, yes you have! You're just saying that so you don't have to do anything!'

' _Blaming an individual with no basis? How unheroic, Netsui-kun!"_ he accused, scolding his friend's morality.

'Oh crap, you're right, sorry sorry!' Netsui brooded, lowering his head in shame at the accusation, before shaking it, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks as he could feel Akuma dart his 'eyes' elsewhere. 'No, no! Don't change the subject!'

"That's even worse..." Netsui and Jurota flinched back as Nirengeki muttered out, clenching shaking palms to his head, his pupils turning to pinpricks as his expression became somber. "A hero? With _stage fright?!_ How is that even possible, it shouldn't be. Heroes speak to crowds all the time, how can they even-" Shoda's mutters devolved into silent panic as the different scenarios of his final years rose to his mind, all of which involved less than stellar endings.

The multiple quirk user and the beast's supposedly calming words had an unfortunate opposite intended effect, as his mutterings attracted the attention of their nearby classmates. Their eyes darted from Nirengeki to each other, uncertain of how to approach the timorous teen. "What do you propose we do?" Jurota leaned in to whisper.

"I… have no clue…" Netsui trailed off, his words falling flat amidst the shorter boy's panicked ramblings delving into the realms of the inevitable failure he would have to endure in his rescue missions. "Do you…"

Jurota shook his head. "I'm afraid not. This kind of emotional baggage goes beyond my grasp, albeit I think I may be able to offer some solace," he neared Nirengeki, still trembling under his skin, and began to stiffly pat his back uncomfortably. "There, there. It will be alright, my friend," Shishida assured him as vigorously as he was capable of, appearing like a robot imitating a human emotion.

"No, please, don't..." Nirengeki pleaded helplessly, shrinking away from Shishida's hand, hoping he would get the hint. However, he wasn't counting on the beast man being so stubborn as he kept trying to assure him, only to drive Shoda further away. It didn't help that his palms practically slapped his back with the force Jurota wasn't aware of. "Stop it."

In Netsui's eyes, the interaction and the reactions could not be more awkward and cringe-inducing. The mechanical motions of Jurota's inexperienced comfort, combined with Nirengeki prying, inching away from the beast unwanted, insistent touch glued the teen's hazelnut eyes to the never ending cycle.

He inevitably spat out in laughter.

' _Netsui-kun, compose yourself! People are looking,'_ Akuma warned as he felt the quizzical glances and murmurs surrounding him.

'But Akuma, it's too funny!' Netsui let out a high pitched chuckling fit, unable to contain the titter nibbling at his throat. He attempted to suppress it by slapping his mouth shut, but it had done its damage as Nirengeki sunk lower to the ground while evading Jurota.

"They what?!" their teacher's voice resonated in 1-B's ears as they perked up at him, stopping the conversations dead on their tracks - some grateful for the divine interruption. "On the first day?" he asked to an equally large man with a long mane of hair and a fur pelt.

"Yeah, so I've hear _rrrrrgh._ " the man growled out with a rasp. "He didn't even _ghrrurh_ the faculty of h _hhrurau_ absen _guhh_. Isn't this qualif _rah_ ed! as a br _rrrahr!_ of U.A guidel _AHOOOO?!"_ he… asked? Howled? Netsui wasn't sure if he was angry or not. The black muzzle covered his snarls, his pupils shrinking to microscopic atoms.

"No, he does have the freedom to do so, HoundDog, but what does he gain from this?" Blood King retorted, naturally understanding his fellow instructor.

" _HRARARGH_! That's what," HoundDog roared, barring sharp canines underneath his muzzle. Class 1-B watched the exchange in plain confusion and mild fear, trying to make out what the other sensei was saying.

'Akuma, did you get any of that?' Netsui asked, dumbfounded.

' _I was about to ask you the same thing,'_ Akuma chimed in, curiosity on par with his friend's doubt.

Blood King sighed. "Given this information, I might have to make some schedule changes. Thanks, HoundDog-san," he said, beholden to the Lifestyle Guidance coach.

" _Grah._ " he barked in acknowledgement, waving goodbye as they departed.

Blood King walked back to his respective class, who awaited the return of their sensei with bated breaths. "Alright class, sorry to say but we're gonna have to cut this ceremony short," he announced.

The pupils cried out in disbelief, incensed by the turn of events, with the exception of Kendo, Kodai, seeming incurious as always, Netsui, and subsequently, Akuma, and Monoma Neito, who raised a hand in question.

"Yes, Monoma?"

"Is this in any way related to Class 1-A's absence?" Monoma inquired, a complacent smirk on his face palpable. It struck Akuma with an inconspicuous disturbance, warning him to be weary of the blond teen, while Netsui's visage manifested perplexion.

"Absolutely not," the Pro Hero gainsaid. "This is exclusively in the best interest of your path towards heroics. The sooner we start with the real trials ahead, the better we can prepare you for the world of pros. Ain't no way I'm letting that nightwalker one-up me…" he explained, mumbling out the last part, albeit a little too loudly.

' _This is totally a grudge.'_ the entirety of the class, along with Akuma, thought simultaneously.

"Now, let me get you you're gym uniforms so we can start the quirk apprehension tests. In the meantime, report to the P.E grounds facing the gym. It's right in front of the main building, you can't miss it,"

After rendezvousing at the delegated location sporting the gym outfits with the insignias 'U.A' plastered on their collars and stomachs, Netsui and Class 1-B scanned the school's P.E grounds, accented by the large tracks scratched on the earth. One track lead itself on a rounded square, another went on a straight start-and-end path, another inscribed a circle and diameters increasing in length and the final featured a sandpit.

One student couldn't help but raise her hand at the abnormal transition. "Blood-sensei, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly were we specifically pulled in the middle of the ceremony?" Itsuka asked, stepping forward from Yui.

"Yeah, and are we gonna miss the guidance counseling stuff too?" asked Kuroiro Shihai, the tall, pitch-black boy in the back of the class, lazily scratching his scalp before adding. "'Cause that'd be super…"

'Oh hey, the black guy is on our class,'

' _Netsui! Don't you ever said that again!'_

'...why? He is bla-'

' _EVER!'_

'Sheesh, fine, sorry!'

Blood King nodded understandably at the questions. "There's been a slight change in the schedule. I apologize for the unwarranted alteration, but we'll go back to the school's program shortly-"

"Drat." Shihai grumbled.

"-though, honestly, those introductions should be the least of your concerns," the teacher ignored his student's protest. "For now, I, as well as the faculty and, to a certain degree, yourselves, will be gauging each of your quirks individual and ascertain the capabilities and limits you all possess," he then turned to the tracks behind him. "I'm sure you're all aware of the activities you took in middle school - fifty meter dash, softball pitch and the like -, the ones where strict quirk prohibitions were implemented, courtesy of MECSST?"

A low _tsk_ sounded besides Netsui, causing him to spare a single glance at the culprit. A boy with beetle-like mandibles shook his head slightly with a fierce glare, growling throatily. Deciding not to tempt the irated gods, Netsui turned back to Blood King's lesson.

"You will be going through the same trials here for the quirk apprehension test, except this time you will be allowed full access to your quirks as you see fit," he remarked proudly, opening his arms to his sides. "That is 'Plus Ultra'! The very essence of heroism, the absolute use of quirks and the ultimate form of trust and hope that society grants heroes like us. And it's our jobs as heroes to retain it with our sacrifices. That," he pointed a finger towards the students, a grin pursuing his lips. "Is where you should aim if you wish to succeed. Can I hear a 'Plus Ultra'?" he shouted enthusiastically.

The class pumped their fists up in All Might fashion with the signature 'Plus Ultra' cry, a wave of relief flashing through the students as they briefly cheered in praise for the freedom of campus. This is what they yearned for - despite the many disparate reasons why they chose to follow the path of heroics, they all had one similar objective in mind. To rescue the lives of the innocent and defeat the criminals plaguing the streets of Japan. Just like any other sane civilian thought, but they had the courage to take the first step towards change.

Netsui wrinkled his nose and forehead at the sudden pressure built up on his shoulders after his own joyous cheer. The freedom this school provided its students wasn't enough to make him reveal all he was, and it barely convinced him to go beyond his set boundaries. Akuma already went this far aiding Netsui into hiding his real identity to the real world and he'd like for it to stick that way.

Akuma sensed his hesitation, cupping warmth on his left shoulder. ' _It's best if they remain anonymous to us, Netsui-kun...'_ Akuma said, with Netsui giving a final nod.

Itsuka kept her gaze fixed on her faraway classmate, her brows creasing at his habitual odd behaviour. She witnessed his facial expressions shifting once again, this time the uncertainty he displayed disturbed her greatly.

The tests began with the fifty meter dash and an unremarkable record for Netsui. "6.01 seconds." the camera/timer-bot read off as Netsui panted lightly a little ways from the finish line. The time achieved wasn't much given what he could do at his best, but it was definitely better than his middle school time - 7.10 seconds.

"That should be enough," he muttered to himself in between breaths, stretching his legs to stop the potential cramping. That, and Akuma bugged him to no end, fearful of any injuries or lesions handicapping him for rest of the apprehension tests.

The timer beeped again, signifying the end of the dash for Netsui's randomized opponent. "8.14 seconds." it read, the unceremonious time having no effect on Neito as he grinned widely, hands on his hips, popping the aching joints on his back.

With a sigh, Monoma looked back at the rest of his class, the many eyes and holes gaping at him like deers in headlights. "What?" he asked innocently.

"Even for a middle school record, that was pretty substandard," Itsuka spoke out, with Yui nodding in agreement. "Neither of you seem to have speed based quirks, and you're vastly apart from each other,"

'Well, _that_ one technically is not speed based,'

' _We'll let them think that.'_

Neito dismissed the critique with a wave of his hand. "Naw, it was just an unlucky placement." he said, walking away from Netsui, who jerked in place from the accusation.

"What did I do?" Netsui asked indignantly.

Monoma glanced back at him nonchalantly. "It's not a matter of what you _did_ , it's a matter of what you _have,_ " he explained succinctly, continuing on to the wait for next test. "If I knew any of your quirks the results would drastically change, believe me,"

'I'm… still not following,' he thought to Akuma, while Honenuki Juzo and Tsunotori Pony took their stations on the starting line. Juzo yelled out, issuing a challenge towards his competitor, to which Pony responded with a head tilt and an inquisitive frown.

' _Sounded more akin to an excuse than an enigma, though the implications are quite queer.'_

Netsui deadpanned. 'Um-'

' _I am using that word in an appropriate context, Netsui,'_

'Oh… okay,'

Next up was the grip enhancement test, a test Netsui found to be easy enough to conceal his quirk. Using his **Kinetic Discharge** to decrease the mass of the device, he gripped it tightly into a balled fist until the device beeped twice when it had reached his peak to the point Netsui was almost afraid it would break. Looking down at the small screen, he grinned at the digits.

 _199 KGW,_ the gripping device read brightly, washing the teen in repose. The arm and hand exercises his father so vehemently rehearsed upon him during his waiting period, coupled with the innate strength of the **Chrome Bones** quirk obtained through bodily strain, paid off in the long run. When the day finally ends, he'd have to remind himself to thank his dad for the rigorous training.

As expected, there were others who outplayed him by a ton. Yui grew five inches taller as she gripped the device, peaking at the _230 KGW_ mark, Itsuka managed a _243 KGW_ score with her **Big Fists** quirk on par with her quiet friend, and Jurota, in all his beastly glory, scored _367 KGW_ , gaining the attention of the wide pupiled boy, Tsuburaba, and the smirking blond, who patted his back, as well as Itsuka's, in congratulations.

Netsui couldn't complain. As far as his quirks went, **Chrome Bones** was a mostly passive quirk that gave his skeleton more resistant towards physical attacks without actually enhancing his overall strength. In the case of his **Kinetic Discharge** , despite its few technicalities and major advantages, it wasn't fit for a one-on-one scuffle at close range against a stronger villain.

All in all, with the way the tests were progressing he appeared to be in the clear, averaging a passable grade in each of them according to his and Akuma's musings.

The results of the standing long jump left much to be desired, as he couldn't do a lot without Akuma's intervention besides letting his hardened calves do the heavy lifting as he jumped. The majority of his class seemed to remain at his level, though a select few excelled; Jurota leaped far and dug deep at the sandpit, Yanagi Reiko disappeared from view and reappeared what Netsui imagined to be miles away from the start, which highly fascinated the class. Monoma did the same as her, disappearing in a flash and coming back further from them, though not as far as Reiko, garnering even more praise.

The sustained sideways strafes left him and Akuma at a complete loss in terms of surpassing it, as the duo weren't sure if there was even any quirk useful for just such a test, or if such a quirk was worthy of the heroics course. His query was answered when Shihai came up to the task, hands resting on his gym uniform's pockets. At the 'START', a black sludge materialized at his feet, guiding him from side to side rapidly in a blur as he looked ahead with a bored expression. Congratulating him, Monoma's turned black as he stepped up to the plate, imitating Shihai's exact quirk and movements.

"Oh, I get it. It's a **Copycat** quirk!" Tsuburaba exclaimed, entranced by this new information. "Man, that's so versatile. Imagine what you could do with something like that,"

"The Pros will be all over him when he graduates. Ah! I'm so jealous!"

"It's so flashy too,"

Akuma grimaced. ' _He better watch where he touches,'_ he mumbled harshly at the smug boy, walking from the track to meet his admirers.

'Did you say something, Akuma?' Netsui perked up from his silent commendation for the boy's quirk.

' _Nothing, nothing,'_ Akuma said, shaking his 'head'. ' _I'm merely rambling,'_

Finally came the softball pitch, the test that Netsui had long been waiting for. The one test, aside from perhaps the upper body strength, where his talent could shine at last. "Shinshi, you're up," Blood King called out, slinging the ball towards the approaching teen, catching it flawlessly.

The teen gave a toothy grin, tossing the ball between his hands in the middle of the circle, dispersing the mass evenly until it was featherweight. Netsui could barely contain his excitement as he felt the weight of the already flimsy softball vanish, letting out tiny squeals from his teeth every so often the more he tapped and tugged at the ball.

To the crowd, it looked like their pony-tailed classmate lost his sanity, resorting to a fit of low squeaks as he carried on his solo ball juggling circus act. They darted their eyes from one another and their teacher, who was looking worse for wear, hoping that one of them could speak out on behalf of Netsui's hysterical bearings.

"Is he alright? Should we say something?" Komori Kinoko asked, her lips trembling anxiously as she watched the spectacle in fearful expectation. She jerked back as Netsui let out another squeal.

"I believe this is normal for him," Ibara chirped in, being the only one of the spectating with a neutral visage. "He was like this at the entrance exam too,"

"This dude has guts for days!" Tetsu cried out with a fierce fire in his eyes, before reeling back his thrill. "But he's so crazy. I don't think that makes for a good hero combo,"

"I disagree," Jurota joined the commentary. "Determination and insanity go hand in hand together for both heroics and villainy. What separates him from greatness, at the moment, seems to be self-control,"

"Ditto," Tsuburaba said, furrowing his brows, growing uncomfortable with a lour. "If this keeps going, I might have to call the insane asylum," he received a look from Sen Kaibara, and a chuckle from Monoma.

' _Showoff.'_

'Just giving the people something to look at,' he thought, glancing at the murmuring crowd. Tossing the softball to his right hand, he cocked his arm, noting the weightless, solid air-like object in his palms. His body twisted rightward, leaving his arm over his shoulder and his figure faintly bent like an olympic athlete in a disk throwing event.

Whipping in position, he hurled upward and frontward, launching the ball to the skies like an angel returning to the heavens, piercing and parting the scant clouds above them. The wind caused by the projectile flung strands of his long hair off, though he paid it no mind, focusing only on the display of power.

The chronometer in Blood King's hand beeped, causing him to look down at the digits popping up on screen. With a slight brow raise, he turned the device towards Netsui, who smirked merrily.

 _745.6 m_ it read. He walked back to the line of students, uprearing his fist up while the other rested on his side, smiling all the way.

Tetsu was the first to praise. "That was awesome, man! Was that the same thing you used against that zero pointer?!"

"I'm so blessed to be in the same class as you," Ibara commented, her hands held in prayer form.

"Wow, I'm impressed, Shinshi-kun," Itsuka said, coming up behind him. "How did you do that? What exactly is your quirk?"

Netsui chuckled modestly, trying to hide rising blush from his cheeks. "It's just a strength enhancement quirk," he lied, flexing a bicep and poking it with an index. "Not much else to it,"

"Is that so?" Monoma asked, closing the distance between them. Netsui heard a growl somewhere nearby, but couldn't press on before the blond spoke again. "Not too flashy, but it certainly does the job well," he patted his shoulder with an open palm, his fingers scraping his neck. "Regardless, congratulations on that magnificent throw." a warmer smile graced his features, a generally pleasant from his usual smug grin.

Netsui was taken aback by it, but reciprocated the smile nonetheless. "Thanks, dude. I tried,"

"Oh, I can see that," he said, turning back to the test as their homeroom teacher called him to the pitch.

A louder growl was heard again by Netsui, this time he knew where it came from. 'Akuma, what's the matter with you?' he asked internally, confused at the angered entity.

Akuma huffed with a snarl. ' _I don't trust this young man, Netsui-kun.'_

'So? Is that a reason to justify wanting to terrorize him?'

' _I don't-'_

'Dude, we share the same thoughts. Don't lie to me,' Netsui interrupted his stubborn friend. 'You're afraid he'll hurt me,'

' _... no.'_ Akuma mumbled in response.

'Akuma, let's be real here. Look at him,' he thought, paying attention to Monoma ready to pitch the ball, the trademark smirk back on his lips. He pulled his arm back, imitating Netsui's motions from his powerful throw, hurling the ball over his head with all his might-

… and ending up dozens of feet away from the circle. "35 meters." Blood King proclaimed, writing down the results next to Neito's name on his paper. The distance broke the arrogant blond as his visage turned dark, slouching and staring in utter shock and disbelief at the adjacent ball and the classmate whose quirk he copied.

'You really think he's gonna hurt me?'

Akuma sighed dejectedly, disgruntled. ' _I know he's not going to hurt you, you're stronger than that,'_ he admitted, forlorned. ' _The others are what I'm concerned over,'_

Netsui raised a brow. 'What do you-"

"Hey, Shinshi-kun," Itsuka called out abruptly beside him, forcing him to away from the inner conflict. "Wasn't your quirk suppose to be super strength?" she asked.

"Yeah…" he half answered, hearing Akuma huff irritatedly on the inside. "Also, it's Netsui,"

She nodded in understanding. "Well, when he copied your quirk just now, it didn't make him stronger. Why is that?"

The question wasn't meant as an accusation, but in Netsui's mind, the thought of having been found out left him and Akuma anxious as he struggled to keep himself together. "W-well, you see, um…" he stuttered, scratching his cheek nervously. "I-it's more co-complicated than that. Th-there i-i-is a f-form of ac-activation in my q-quirk that you re-really need to know if you want to use it," he managed to blurt it out the lie in a semi-muttering speech.

Itsuka parted her lips in an 'o', nodding her head. "I guess that makes sense. It's like a mutation type quirk," she simplified, turning to the crestfallen Monoma. "Since he didn't know how to activate it, he couldn't use it. Must be big a drawback to his quirk, having to learn the quirk's power before using it,"

Netsui released a tense chuckle. "It sure sounds like a lot of work…" even if the last comment was directed at Monoma specifically, Netsui couldn't help but sympathize with the cocky boy. Their quirks - Netsui's real one, that is - were similar in nature, so he could understand the effort one would have to put into other quirk.

Albeit the end goals were polar opposites. Whereas Monoma could simply copy a quirk without any harm to the unsuspecting owner of the quirk, Netsui downright stole it and made it his own, and depending on his feelings towards the original owner, it had different degrees of consequence.

Netsui coughed into his arm to bring his back to reality. "So, uh, we better get going, the next test is about to start," he told her as he paced to meet their sensei, not bothering to see if Itsuka was following.

Lagging behind at her own pace, Itsuka gazed at the nape of Netsui's neck. _There is something you're not telling me, Netsui-kun. What's hurting you?_

Nothing of note was established in the last three of the exercises remaining. The endurance running clocked the teen with a comfortable time, the upper body exercises he'd shone less than the pitch, only being able to pass after transferring mass a few seconds after picking up the weights, and the seated toe touch was successful thanks to another one of his quirks that was easier to explain - "I do a lot of stretching at home," he'd say to anyone commenting on his flexibility. That, however, didn't stop Itsuka from getting a better mark on that test.

"Alright everyone, the results have all been accounted for," and now, Class 1-B fidgeted, anticipating the fruits of their labour. "Please note that what you're about to see is the sum total of all your scores, in accordance with your quirk types and the regular school standard," Blood King pressed a button on his device, bringing up a projection of the class' ranking in the quirk apprehension test. "What you see is what you get. If you got something to say, take it up with the faculty,"

The class looked up to the projection, surveying for their individual names in the system. Netsui's eyed the top of the ranks, the first, second and third places being occupied by Shishida, Kaibara Sen and Pony, respectively. Monoma's name appeared just below those three at the fifth spot, the ball pitch severely incapacitating his chances of a higher score. He glimpsed at the boy in question, who in spite of the handicap, took his place with stride.

His eyes then fell upon his own name, and to the left stood his rank.

 **10 - Shinshi Netsui**

' _Well, congratulations for your efforts are in order my friend,'_ Akuma stated, warming the teen's frazzled head roughly. ' _I'm proud of you, Netsui-kun,'_

'Thanks…' he replied in hushed apathy, gaze locked firmly on his score, ignoring the fuzzy warmth. He was glad he was safe from going below the bar, of course. He was infinitely glad the scoring system was merciful on him given his circumstances and what he held back.

But… why did this leave such a bitter taste in his mouth?

* * *

The evening came, meaning that school was _finally_ out _,_ as Netsui exasperated extensively. His purple backpack hung loosely as usual, half hazardously thrown over his right shoulder when the bell rung and the exhausted boy exited the building, ready to head home and call it a day.

Even when the day went as the curriculum said it would, with the guidance counselor meeting and the introduction to the day's subject teachers, like Modern Literature's Cementoss - whom Akuma admired for his immense and articulate vernacular - and English's Present Mic - who stared at Netsui eerily through his shades before introducing himself.

The pony tail had come off sometime during those presentations, releasing the primal ferocity of the forest that was Netsui's frazzled mane, no longer burdened by the prison of the blackened knot. He sighed in relief at the end of the school day.

' _A productive day, I must add,'_ Akuma gave leeway to conversation for Netsui, ecstatic at the prospect. ' _It was most assuredly a tremendous start to a soon to be bountiful adventure, would you not agree, Netsui-kun?'_

Though the relief was palpable on his visage, the teen didn't answer, the corner of his lips curling into an unsure frown as his face tightened in thought.

' _Netsui,'_ Akuma called him at attention in a warm tone. ' _You're doing it again,'_

Netsui grunted, irked. 'I know…'

' _Do you need to take your pills?'_ Akuma asked, worry arising.

'No, not yet. I'm still fine for now, I can make it home,' he clarified, with Akuma breathing out a sigh he didn't know he had. 'It's about the quirk test,'

' _What of it?'_

'Well, it's just that… tenth place didn't sit right with me, you know?' he said, sensing Akuma's understanding, signaling him to continue. 'I thought that maybe… I could've done better if-'

' _-if you were to utilize your quirks freely?'_ Akuma finished Netsui's sentence. Netsui hesitantly nodded. ' _You're very well aware I don't agree with you exposing yourself to the world regarding your origins,'_

'No, no, I didn't mean it like that,' he asserted, mentally raising his hand defensively. 'But it's inevitable, right? Dad said it himself at one point, right, Akuma, that one day the unexpected might happen and my real identity was forced on the populace, remember?'

The mental entity knew fully what his friend meant. It had been a rather short time when he said those words, and to some degree, he understood Aisuru's concerns. ' _Don't try to force change, Netsui,'_ Akuma interjected in thought. He wholeheartedly respected the man that saved the teen's life, but he needed to put his metaphorical foot down eventually. ' _You know it as well as I do that doing so would bring about more bad than good,'_

Netsui sighed, grief-stricken. 'I know, Akuma… you taught me that,' he dejected, gripping his chest tightly, the lingering tension in his heart threatening to overflow his senses. 'I just hope that, when that day comes, I'm prepared for it,'

Akuma backtracked at his friend's sadness, resorting to simply 'massaging' his friend's shoulder in half-hearted support of his decision. In truth, he knew it was the right call, but regret made its presence noted in the mental entity's emotions, jumbling his thoughts and clouding his judgement. He shook it off as quickly as it came, cursing himself for letting his logical hemisphere be corrupt so easily.

"What're you thinking about now?" Itsuka came behind him with Yui in tow, breaking him out of his stupor, blissfully unaware of his train of thought.

Netsui jumped with a startle. "Oh! Um... you know, j-just nervous," he forced out a lie in dismissal, looking away from her so she couldn't see his despair. "...kinda disappointed too,"

"Your test placement getting to you?" Itsuka asked curiously, tilting her head. Yui blinked.

"...yeah," he lied. Again. God, he _hated_ lying. Can't he just tell the truth for once? Just once?! "Not what I was expecting, considering I was giving it my all," 'Stop, just stop talking, you're making it worse!'

He felt a gentle touch on his forearm, the soft warmth prompting him to turn around, peering at Itsuka's sweet smile. "Don't let it get to you, it's just one test," she gripped his arm tighter, not as a sign of dominance, but as a sign of reassurance, which Netsui accepted. "We've got three years worth of training here, three years to prove your worth. You'll come around,"

"Still…" he uttered, his anxiety showing on his drooping motions. "There might be the chance that we could get expelled if we don't come up to the task,"

Oh man, did he honestly just say that? Did he seriously just open up to a person that he's only known for little less than a morning and afternoon, with little to no interactions? How pathetic, he can't even keep to himself properly, he doesn't even know when to shut the fu-

Another tight hold brought his eyes back to her emerald pearls as she shook her head no. "I won't let that happen," she said, her smile growing in size and determination. "Everyone in our class deserves to stay there, especially you," a finger poked his chest and, subsequently, the lump in his heart evaporated instantly at her words. "So don't go telling me you're gonna be expelled. You're going to be a hero, you hear me?"

Netsui blinked, nodding absently, mesmerized by the simplicity of her diction. The hand sturdily holding his arm, the bluntness and impact of her words, the compassionate gaze she kept on his own hazelnuts orbs, the imbuing scent of strawberries in the air, all of it induced an unfamiliar, unknown feeling deep inside his core that spread all throughout his body that made him feel light.

It drowned out his self-abhorring rebuke, filling him with a calming, more relaxed presence over his shoulders, pushing off the invisible weights that heavily slouched him. Netsui scratched the back of his head, with the hand free from her grasp, chuckling sheepishly. "I guess you're right," when she slowly removed her hand from him forearm, he smiled gently. "Thanks for the pick-me-up. I needed that,"

Itsuka giggled softly, and he and Akuma could've sworn Netsui's heart skipped a beat. "No problem. Just remember, don't stress yourself out too much, it's not good for you," she repeated herself, turning to face her way home and motioning for Yui to follow. "If you ever need help, don't be afraid to ask me whenever,"

Netsui watched her and Yui saunter away from him out of the school gate, their uniform blowing in the evening breeze. However, Yui stopped in her tracks, whipping and hastily pacing back to him. He perked up as she stood inches from him, taking his hands into her own and looking up at him with a kind grin, something he wasn't expecting out of the quiet girl.

"You'll do great," Yui whispered dulcetly, bringing his hands to her chest, before setting them back to his sides. "See you tomorrow," running back to her friend and leaving Netsui to his own devices, the two waved a final goodbye to him, exiting the school and fading from his line of sight.

"..." he didn't know what to say. He was… he was speechless. These two barely knew him besides what he chose to show them and they were this trusting and caring of his health? That… didn't make any sense. He could come up with a thousand reasons for why something like this could never happen but… it did. And here he was, confused out of his mind.

It somehow felt… right.

"Huh."

* * *

Tsuragamae arrived at the scene of the crime in his police cruiser, the loud sirens stopping with a whirling sound as he stepped out of the vehicle onto the evening road. His partner, Tsukauchi, exited the car along with him, hands promptly on top of his holstered gun, ready to defend him and his chief in case of any retaliations.

They stared ahead at the wreckage clogging up the main street, the glass shards surrounding the thoroughly dented and slashed steel police car. Tire rubber laid on the cement, ripped, burned and burning the beneath the tattered car, the tarmacs split into pieces. It looked like the one responsible was someone with a force one could only imagine belonged to a rampaging monster, although the truth was far from it as the two officers knew.

The occupants, two police officers whom the chief of police knew were tasked with transporting a criminal to the station - a call from U.A, nonetheless -, and it was when their talk to the chief turned to static that the police force took immediate action. They taped off the surrounding area, interrogating any witnesses to the incident and shoving off the civilians hoping to acquire some details that would be deemed secret later on when the media reported on it.

The ambulances were on standby a couple of miles from the incident, waiting for the callout from the officers for any emergency. This was done more out of concern for the safety of the paramedics than the potential victims. They didn't desire to stir up the wasps' nest that was the recently added female perpetrator in the criminal records.

Tsuragamae's canine snout picked up forthwith the heavy scent of blood as he approached the cruiser, urging him to pull out his holstered gun and cock the safety off in one motion. With mutual nods from Tsukauchi and Tsuragamae, they pressed forwards firmly and slowly, guns trained at the hip and creeping on either side of the cruiser.

The two police officers in charge of the transport entered their vision, the crimson blood coating their blue uniforms and badges. The crimson liquid had made its way out of their mouths and sparsely deep wounds to their pant legs, the seats, the wheel and the front windshield, tiny droplets having dried by the time they came. They stayed motionless in their positions, evidencing the abounding blood loss from the gashes from the moment of the incident.

"I don't see her in the backseat, and the windows are broken. I think she escaped, but keep your heads up," Tsukauchi stated to his transmitter, peering carefully down the cracked glass remaining from the window. The torn seats, tarmacs and scattered foam showed that the quirk of the criminal related to cutting things. The perpetrator didn't sport any knifes and swords of the sort, so it must have been a more natural power, Tsukauchi assumed.

"Roger that. Back and front doors on this side seem to be gashed open. The girl might've broken out from here. Yours?" Tsuragamae responded to Naomasa's call, tracing his fingers on the busted lock of the driver's seat door.

"Besides the dents, there's nothing indicating a breakout, more like a struggle with her restraints. Looks like she's long gone by now," Tsukauchi said, placing two fingers on his neck to check for signs of life, ignoring the blood touching his hand. He flashed a somber scowl for an instant before paling back to neutrality. "No pulse... I'll call the paramedics,"

Tsuragamae mirrored his partner's actions, pressing his fingers in the crack of his neck. Much like Tsukauchi, he felt no pulse whatsoever, causing him to dip his head remorsefully. "Damn it…" he muttered silently, the rue eating at his heart, the nauseating smell of blood overwhelming him as he discerned the sound of ambulances in the distance. "If only I came sooner…" the dog-man surveyed the inside of the dead man's vehicle, facing the red dotted camera propped up on top of the glove compartment.

"I am not looking forward to your testimony."

* * *

 **Alright, I got the plot going with the semi-introduction to a villain - uh! I mean, to a '** _ **villain**_ ' **?!**

…

 **Yeah, a villain. She killed cops. What kind of hero does that? Except for Gazi Kudzo's definition of 'African Heroes', which is just insane, I don't think there are any.**

 **I also hereby dub the name** _ **dubious boi**_ **to Nirengeki Shoda and** _ **smart boi**_ **to Jurota Shishida. The reason for this choice of a rather self-deprecating personality for Shoda was because of his picture in the Class 1-B of the fandom wiki. Seriously, if that face doesn't say "I'm fucked" I don't know what does.**

 **As for Jurota, well… his trivia says he was inspired by Beast from X-Men, so he is Beast from X-Men… kinda. I don't know all his character traits, but the simplification of the personalities removes pressure from over-exacerbation.**

 **Fair warning, in order to round out the class - since if I didn't it'd have 21 students which would fuck up the events - I decided to remove Manga Fukidashi from the class. It shouldn't influence the canon flow much since I've heard he was just a parody character of sorts.**

 **Hope you don't mind and enjoy. Next time I'll be telling you my fetish(es).**


	6. In The Heat of Battle Training

**A/N: I'm into light femdom. I'm a man by the way.**

 **However, my biggest fetish is respecting women.**

 **Seriously now, I'm thinking of changing the title of the fic. This one is kind of a mouthful, so I might just change it to something simpler. Don't know if I'll actually go through with this like I didn't go through with the AO3 posting.**

 **Second thoughts, amiritegents?**

 **Feedback always advised and welcome.**

* * *

' _Netsui! Avert your gaze!_ '

'Agh, Akuma! I can't hold on like this! The teacher asked a question, I can't just not answer it,'

' _You have to. It's the only way you can make it out of here alive!_ '

'There's no way we're getting out like this! It'll just make it worse! Do I have any quirk that makes me go invisible or something?!'

' _Absolutely not, and even if we did indeed possess such an ability I would not allow you use it!_ '

'Akuma, please, I beg you, do something!'

' _What am_ I _supposed to-_ '

"Shinshi," a female voice called out, causing the profusely sweating teen to flinch in his seat, the sultriness of the tone sent an uncomfortable shiver to travel beneath his skin from his scalp to his toes. Like a rusty crank, his gaze slowly broke from the wooden table, as if cautious that anyone reacted to his abrupt movement, to his Modern Hero Art History teacher, his hellish nightmare fulfilled entirely.

As it turned out, along with the U.A acceptance letter also came another letter, this one stipulating the different classes' schedules and the teachers assigned to the individual subjects. Nemuri had hidden this particular one away from Netsui's prying eyes as he blithely celebrated with his father - or whatever that inane screaming was -, bathing in delight.

If he had read said letter, he would not have put forth the so called 'Operation Urination'. It explained why she didn't give her introduction, and while he felt greatly pleased with it, it just didn't sit well with him later on… like right now.

Midnight glared at Netsui with bloodshot eyes, pupils like pinpricks staring sharpened and toxic daggers at the shaking teen, whose eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, leaving him to wonder for an instant if he had accidentally stolen Yui-chan's quirk. "Y-yes, ma'am?" he uttered harshly, breathing shakily as drops of sweat formed rivers on the side of his head. Luckily his long hair concealed the extremity of his nervousness.

Midnight gripped the chalk between her fingers tighter, licking her lips sadistically and leisurely as a rose blush tinted her features, sending another shiver up Netsui's spine, this time being shared by his fellow peers.

"Can you tell me what incident finally incited the prohibitions and police intervention on quirks?" she asked, chalk pointing to the written chart showing the timeline starting from the 'Luminescent Boy' from Qing Qing, China, the first quirked to be born, and the first ever self-proclaimed hero, the 'Flying Hero', Superman.

' _You know this one, Netsui-kun,_ ' Akuma said assuredly, though the owner of the body felt him tremoring wildly inside him. ' _D-don't let her get to you,_ '

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Netsui opened his trembling mouth to answer. "Th-th-the X Mansion Incident." he said out loud, confident in his response but his shakiness betrayed him.

Midnight inhaled sharply, her chest pumping out more the longer she breathed in, causing Netsui to shrink into his seat reflexively, wanting nothing more than to succumb to the fabric of the school uniform and become one with the threads. The 18+ hero then grinned thinly from ear to ear, eyes closing in content. "Correct!" she said, uncharacteristically joyful, a deep crimson permeating her cheeks as she turned to write on the chalkboard.

Netsui practically deflated like a balloon, relief and annoyance mixing into a very contradictory concoction. 'This bitch!' he thought angrily, glaring at the Pro Hero scribbling his answer between the timeline on the board.

' _How they can let such a heartless wench within the premises is beyond me!_ ' Netsui inwardly nodded shakily. Getting used to Nemuri as a human being wasn't an easy task, one that couldn't be completed the short allotted time of days, weeks, months, or even years. Or ever, really.

A bell rung beside the classroom, indicating the end of 1-B's first period, earning a sigh of relief from the sunken student. 'Thank god that's over,' he thought out to no one in particular, feeling Midnight's adulterous gaze burn his nape. Packing up his belongings and exiting the class, he made his way towards the lunch hall, grunting slightly as he adjusted his tied ponytail, his backpack bouncing with each step and shoulder shuffle.

Seeing a green, prickly head of hair ahead of him accompanied by a more metallic one and a larger, fuzzier tuft, he squeezed past the adjacent members of the class coming out of 1-A, apologizing quickly for the more unintentionally forceful shoves. Reaching the unusual trio, he mutually greeted the three, with Tetsu gave a more brisk wave as he was in the middle of venting.

"Argh! Modern Hero Art History is so boring," Tetsu said, throwing his head back in exasperation. "I thought the subject would get better in this school, but it's even worse! When're we ever gonna need to know any of that jargon?"

"'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,'" Jurota chimed in without missing a beat, as if he practised the phrase millions of times before. "As George Santayana so eloquently put it,"

"Whatever," he conceded with a sigh, straightening up his back. "That just means there's another obstacle to face in my way. No one ever said heroism was gonna be easy, but to think something like this was trying to stop me…"

Ibara hummed in thought. "I believe it's less about remembering the past and more about paying our respects to our predecessors," she stated softly, her hands swaying to her sides. "That must be what Midnight-sama meant when she said how crucial this class was at the start,"

' _I highly doubt that,_ '

"I highly doubt that," Netsui said, accidentally externalizing his inner entity's mutter, meriting curious stares from the trio.

"How so?" Ibara inquired, while Jurota scratched his chin, nodding in accord.

"Oh, you know how Midnight is," beads of sweat reappeared on his forehead as he scrambled for a coherent answer, forcing him to cover the visible patches of his head not obscured by his blackened hair. Cursing inwardly at Akuma's intrusion, he continued at a hushed composure. "She just… says stuff like that to make it seem more important than it actually is,"

It was true; Netsui was a primary testament to the sultry adult's vices. He'd taken his father into account too, but he assumed he might be…. a little too biased. His back shivered at the unpleasant memory surfacing in his thoughts, Akuma gagging intuitively in absolute revulsion.

"How do you know that?" Jurota asked, leaning forward slightly to look at the teen further away from him. "This first class with Midnight-sensei didn't provide us with enough information regarding her methods. In fact, she seemed rather stiffer than she typically does on television,"

Tetsu perked up as a sudden thought flew to his mind. "Yeah, now that I think about it, she was paying more attention to you than she did the rest of us, Netsui. A lot of stink eye too," he deduced, leaning towards Netsui. "Do you two know each other?"

"Is she a friend of the family?" Ibara asked, curiosity welling in her dim expression.

Netsui scratched the side of his head nervously, reflecting carefully on his answer as the group reached U.A's packed, accommodating lunch hall, making their way towards Lunch Rush's line. "'Family friend' is a complicated word-"

' _If only I had an arm and a leg to give..._ ' Akuma croaked.

"- she's more of an on-again, off-again maid," he said bluntly, grabbing a tray on the counter and waiting in line. Oh, lunch was takoyaki, Netsui's favorite. He smiled happily. "Well, maybe 'maid' is the wrong word too,"

"She cleans your house?" Ibara inquired, following Netsui on the line with her own tray, grabbing a nearby piece of bread. Netsui nodded hesitantly. "I never would take Midnight-sama for someone to do that kind of work,"

"Pfft, she doesn't consider it work at all," Netsui commented offhandedly.

"Yeah right," Tetsu mocked, spitting out incredulously. "You're just pulling our tails now. Why would Midnight, of all people, degrade herself to that level?"

' _Is he insinuating she hasn't degraded herself enough?_ ' Auma asked just as incredulously.

Netsui had to stifle a giggle before he continued. "Well, you see, Tetsu-kun, she tends to do that so she can butter up my dad for a 'favor' of hers,"

"Favor? Do you mean, like-"

"She fucks him." he deadpanned.

The people around him, including his circle of friends, the lunch hero, and especially the freckled boy in front of him jerked back violently from his choice of words. Ibara covered her mouth abruptly with her palm, her expression turning even paler and horrified, fearing for her innocent. Jurota's jerk nearly caused his glasses to fall and bump into another student, and Tetsu simply stared slack jawed, choking wordlessly.

Lunch Rush froze in place, his gloved hand gripping the white rice bowl inches from his tray, darting his vision to the sides as to not meet eye contact with the teen, who thanked him for the grub. The lunch hero remained in stunned silence throughout the interaction.

' _You could've honestly worded it better,'_

'How?'

' _...touché._ '

"All night long, I might add," Netsui shrugged absentmindedly, the reactions doubling over as freckles scampered away elsewhere and Ibara felt bile building up in her throat. "What do you call someone like that anyway?" he asked rhetorically, exiting the line of wide eyes pupils with his full tray of takoyaki.

Jurota readjusted his glasses, regaining his composure. "The most fitting term that comes to mind is 'moth-'"

"No, it's not." Ibara muffle out in interruption, hand still over her lips, preventing her from hurling out her breakfast, followed in toll by a Tetsu frozen in shock.

Crimson eyes locked with the mismatched group, watching as they picked out a large table a little ways from their own. They returned to friendly banter and chortles shortly after all of them were seated, as if the crass comment never left the frazzled haired boy's mouth.

And it was this boy Kirishima focused on particularly.

"Hey, Mina-chan," he called out to the girl next to him.

"Mmm?" the pink girl moaned in response, her mouth too full of delicious white rice to answer properly. Swallowing the grains, Mina turned to the redhead, grinning expectantly. "What's up?"

"Do you see that guy over there?" he asked, nodding towards the subject of his curiosity.

"The hobo looking one?"

"Yeah, that guy," he said with a curt nod. "Doesn't he look like someone we know?"

Mina squinted her eyes as she peered at the Netsui, who listened intently to a lecturing Jurota and occasionally chiming Tetsu. Mina met and knew many people throughout her life - mostly good, often misunderstood, and the minor apples rotten to the core -, a fact that could not be overlooked. Despite this, she couldn't put her finger on the familiarity of the boy.

She shook her head no. "Nope, no idea. Why?" she asked, tilting her head.

Kirishima pouted, keeping his gaze still on the chuckling student before turning away, smiling self consciously. "Ah, can't figure it out either. He just seemed so familiar. Maybe it's just me," he admitted bashfully, resuming his lunch munching.

* * *

"I AM…" a bellowing voice rang out outside, causing the Class 1-B students to diverge their attention to the door. It flung open with a slam, a burly, rugged man in a red tight body suit and yellow cape leaning in tiptoes on the doorframe. "COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON AGAIN!"

"All Might?" Itsuka gasped, her eyes glistening with astonishment.

"Oh my god! All Might is gonna be teaching us?!" Tetsu bawled out, gripping the underside of his desk for dear life. "I take back everything I said, this school is awesome!"

"To be taught by the one and only symbol of peace… I am honored,"

"Finally, something interesting."

"Oh my, Awll Might-teacher is looking so cool!"

Akuma chuckled as the class chattered their excitement. ' _So, Netsui-kun, it must be smashing having the Number 1 Hero teach the aspiring youth of today, including yourself. What do you think, my friend?_ '

'Well…' Netsui thought warily as All Might strode to the front of the class. '... he's tall…'

' _Y_ _es, his stature is quite…_ ' Akuma kept question for a moment, letting Netsui's bemusement sink in. Honestly, what was he expecting from someone like his airheaded friend? ' _...big._ '

"Foundational Hero Studies!" All Might struck a pose, standing heroically with a straightened posture facing the crowd. "Or, as I will be teaching you, Basic Hero Training." he announced. "This is a subject where you train in different environments to learn the basic of being a hero,"

"You'll get tons of credit for it," he said, striking a pose, kneeling down and flexing his biceps with his back to the students. "Without any further ado, let's jump right into-" he spun around, his open palm holding a printed card. "- The Trial of Battle!" the prattling continued on with ecstasy, only stopping when All Might pressed a button, rows of lockers containing numbered briefcases. "And to go with that are these! Costumes made based on your quirk registrations and the gear requests you sent in before school started."

Cheers resounded once again in the class as they jumbled to retrieve their respective briefcases. "After you change, gather in ground beta. The garb you bring to the battlefield is vitally important, boys and girls!"

"Yes, sir!" the class chanted in unison, eagerly awaiting their lesson, promptly exiting the classroom and onto their next faithful challenge. Netsui hugged one-handedly the body of his suitcase under his armpit, solemnly gazing at his exhilarated companions in tranquility.

"And don't forget!" All Might began as the class carried their costumes to the rendezvous, with the Number 1 Hero following suit. "From here on out, you're all officially-"

* * *

"-HEROES!" All Might shouted at the top of his lungs as Class 1-B stepped foot into the cityscape, their manifold hero costumes adorned proudly. "Let's see what you're made of, you embryos. Now that everyone is here, the Trial of Battle can finally commence. It's time for Battle Training!"

"I'm just glad you finished saying that, sir," Tsuburaba said, the oval shaped gas mask enfolding his mouth giving him a voice akin to a wastelander. He looked at his teacher with scrutinizing pupils. "For a second I thought you had a stroke mid sentence,"

"Yeah, you didn't say a word on our way here, so I thought something bad happened. And that smile was creeping me out…" Nirengeki fidgeted in his hero costume reflecting a clash between a sumo wrestler and a heavyweight boxer, a lavender loincloth strapped tightly over a pair of black boxing shorts. His leather shoulder braces jittered slightly with his quivers.

All Might chuckled boisterously. "Tsuburaba, Shoda, my boys, it's was all intentional," All Might chuckled wholeheartedly once more. "Being a hero means having to put on theatrics for the public, to ease our images of heroism for them to confide within themselves," the Pro Hero explained, puffing his chest out.

"But is it really necessary?" Tsuburaba asked with a deepening frown hidden by the mask. Nirengeki looked up at the masked boy curiously then at the staggering Pro Hero.

All Might hesitated in his reply, attempting to come up with a logical and comprehensible to the unexpected inquiry, but fell short, instead opting to tremor silently in his boots, all the while cursing his filmography knowledge. It suddenly occurred to him that that question sounded eerily similar to something Aizawa would ask. "Anyways!" he finally broke the awkward silence and stares, not meeting any of his students' faces. "Everyone here looks very cool. I'm liking your styles!" he gave a sturdy thumbs up.

"Hold on, you didn't answer-"

"Shinshi, my boy!" All Might called out, ignoring Tsuburaba's indignant, disapproving glare. "I see your hero influences! Would it be a stretch to say you're going for a Crimson Riot look?"

"Who?" Netsui perked up, before realization - and Akuma's whispering rectification - struck him. "Oh! Yeah, totally. That guy's my inspiration for this whole thing, so I thought 'why not?'" he told the pro hero, crossing his arms across his chest like his famed hero while Akuma gave him a show of hands for the expert save.

His hero costume consisted of a long collared trench coat with his frazzle ponytail free and neatly combed back to show his face unobstructed. Unlike Crimson Riot's, his cape was chestnut colored coming down to the back of his knees, his sleeves a darker shade of brown, and his collar not torn from villain attacks. The steel mouthpiece was missing, showing off Netsui's conceited grin. His lower body sported dark, tactical military pants, topped off with black laced combat boots.

"Oho, I can see!" All Might briefly praised his student, posing heroically again.

"Whoa, you're a fan of Crimson Riot too?!" Tetsu asked loudly, practically skipping towards Netsui and around him, taking in all the details of his hero costume. His own costume was simple; baggy teal pants, titanium shoes with a big tongue, and four metal straps on his chest holding a red glass orb. 'Cool,' Netsui thought with an inward smile. "It's like I'm looking at Crimson Riot himself..."

"I hope so. I got his company to make this costume up to par with his," Netsui said.

"YOU GOT THE RIOT AGENCY TO MAKE THIS?!" Tetsu bellowed, earning them a class full of dumbfounded stares, causing Netsui to cringe at both that and the close proximity of the high volume. "HOW?"

"... I got contacts?" he said, shrugging absentmindedly, as if this information was common news. The truth was, he wasn't sure if he should reveal his dad's real name, an aspect he was still fuzzy over in the hero industry. Even Akuma found it to be nonsensical.

"Now that we're all set with our costumes, let's put them to the test with our indoor battle trial."

"Indoor?" Rin Hiryu asked, his chinese red and alabaster martial artist garb hanging loosely on him, a slithering dragon imprinted along his torso. "I thought since we were out here it'd be like the entrance exam,"

"On the contrary, my foreign boy," All Might clarified with a finger up. "Villain cleanup is usually seen out in the open, yes, but statistically, the better part of it is an indoor job. Imprisonment, domestic arrests, black market deals… why, any intelligent villain tends to stick to the shadows in this hero saturated society, which us heroes need to look out for the most!"

"Also, in this exercise you won't be fighting robots, but each other," he said, nodding internally to himself. Rin acknowledged the instruction with an 'oh'. ' _I need to thank Asui for that last bit. In fact, I need to thank 1-A for this whole thing. This presentation is going so well, at this rate I won't even need the sheet!_ ' "For this, you'll be separated into ten teams of two for a two-on-two team battle. You will then be split into two groups: the 'Villains' and the 'Heroes'. Any questions before I move on to the specifics?"

A series of hands shot up, belonging to Tokage, Honenuki, Shiozaki, Awase, Tsuburaba and Kuroiro. One more than last time, All Might thought, bracing himself by toning down his shaking figure. "Shoot!"

"Do we get to decide who we'll be going with or against?"

"How much can we wail on the others?"

"Can we resort to non-violence?"

"If we use cheap tricks or cheat when we're villains, do we get more or less points?"

"Is theatrics really a necessity?"

"Do we go back to normal classes after this?"

All Might felt a twinge of unease of the questions lobbed at him in the span of seconds. Nevertheless, he responded the best way he could - in order.

"No, depends, absolutely, neither, I answered that already, and yes." he quickly said all possible answers, not letting any of them have a moment to protest as he pulled out a small crib sheet from his pocket. "For this training, we'll have the villain team guard a nuclear weapon they intend on deploying! The heroes must stop them and their nefarious scheme before it's too late!"

'Is he actually reading off that paper?' Netsui squinted to look closely at the microscopic sheet on All Might's giant hands. 'Did he not make this exercise?'

' _Some of this sounds older than me…_ ' Akuma speculated. ' _Childish as well. All Might has been rehearsing these lines beforehand, that much is certain, what he requires however is constructive reviews… does the faculty allow that?_ '

'I don't think so. I'll ask All Might later,' he dismissed Akuma's ramblings quickly as All Might continued.

"If the heroes capture the villains or reach the nuclear core before time runs out, they win. If the villains manage to keep the core the whole time or capture the heroes, they win," the Pro Hero finalized, pinching the sheet back to his pocket. He then pulled out a box with a hole on top seamlessly from his back. "To go more in depth with Tokage's question, your teammates and opponents will be chosen by lottery!"

Tokage tsked in annoyance. "Oh man, no fair," she said, but shrugged, complying nonetheless. "Eh, probably for the best," Kamakiri glanced at her, a tinge of hurt present in his visage as he darted back to his sensei.

"With all that in mind, the teams are as follow!"

* * *

" _This scenario has the villains inside the building first! Then after five minutes, the heroes will be let in as well! Everyone else will be able to watch what unfolds through the surveillance cameras, so both teams must make careful preparations in anticipation of their respective rivals!_ "

" _This will allow young Shinshi and Kamakiri to get inside the heads of villainkind as well as letting young Tokage and Kendou to orchestrate a countermeasure around the villain's plans and towards the nuclear core! This is a practical training exercise, so please go all out without any fear of injury!_ "

" _I trust you all know not to let things get out of hand?_ "

Netsui hummed as he tapped the comically cartoonish bomb like a man testing a the dryness of a painted wall, his finger meeting course cardboard instead of the expectant tough steel. The confused frown on his visage deepened slightly as the makeshift bomb tilted when the teen jabbed it more forcefully, steadying itself with a light thump.

Backing up from the nuclear core, he whipped around to his lottery winning partner in crime. Kamakiri sat cross-legged on the white tiles of the third floor, arms relaxed on his pant legs, his sharp eyes shut tight. From his position, he appeared to be meditating during the preparation phase. However, his hushed muttering defeated its calming purposes.

"Picked last, I just _had_ to be picked last… and against Tokage-chan, no less," Kamakiri whispered, irritated, shaking his head ever so slightly in mild disapproval. "This year just keeps getting better and better..." he added sarcastically.

Netsui leaned in on Kamakiri's shoulder, patting his green mohawk to offer some peace of mind - and because, admittedly, Netsui really wanted to touch it. It was spiky, yet soft -. The mandible man yelped audibly, jumping a few inches up from his seat as he met the Crimson Riot lookalike in the eyes, staring daggers at him.

Netsui retracted his hand as he felt the fiery intensity, warning him to be at least a meter away from him. So he was. "S-s-sorry about that, didn't mean to scare you," he said sheepishly, raising his hand in defense.

Kamakiri huffed out, his glare softening minimally but still persisting. "You didn't scare me, I was just caught off guard," he explained, standing up from his interrupted 'meditation'. Netsui was now witnessing his hero costume at full glory; a lime green robe, similar to Netsui's brown coat except Kamakiri's had no sleeves and didn't expose his chest. Mantis colored tights enveloped lower half, with his calves and feet covered in bandages of the same hue, and no shoes.

Kamakiri towered over Netsui as the latter saw him extend to his full length. He was left staring dumbly at the former's overstretched, slender neck for too long. A cough brought him back to attention as he looked at the calmer, but still annoyed looking mantis boy. "What did you want to tell me?" Kamakiri asked less than enthusiastically, peering down at his classmate.

"W-well," Netsui started, rubbing the back of his head. "I was about to say, if Tokage is troubling you, when the fight starts, you can go deal with Itsuka-chan while I take-"

"Not gonna happen," Kamakiri interrupted, shaking his head at the absurd idea.

Netsui blinked wordlessly, not comprehending Kamakiri's thought process… or not understanding Kamakiri in general. "Why not?"

Kamakiri opened his mouth to reply, but closed it shortly after, tightening his lips like he'd just sucked a lemon. He looked off the side, as if having second thoughts over his next words, then meeting Netsui's gaze again. "Because I know Tokage better than you do," he said, turning towards the entrance. "Her abilities, her weaknesses, her tactics, everything. I've had extensive work with her along the years, and it would be in our best interests if you didn't mess up by acting stupid," he glanced over his shoulder accusingly at a taken aback Netsui.

Netsui pouted. "Do you take me for an idiot?" he asked, annoyed.

"Yes." Kamakiri concluded, focusing back on the door.

"Oh…" Netsui pined in a split second, his back curved like a torture device, letting a lone tear crash to the floor. "Okay…"

' _I hope you win, Netsui-kun, you know that…'_ Akuma said. _'However, at the same time, I want Kamakiri to fail. What a moral dilemma I'm in...'_

'You're not helping…'

"Now, let's start the final indoor person-to-person combat training between Team D and Team E!" All Might's voice sounded through the loud speakers throughout the facility. "BEGIN!"

Crouching slightly in a stance, Kamakiri ordered Netsui to be quiet with a shush. With a nod from Netsui followed by silence, Kamakiri listened in on any incoming noise, attempting to locate of entry and their route. Approaching the entrance at a snail's pace, he shut his eyes, hoping the sight depravity would enhance his other sense in some way. He could faintly hear taps beneath them, indicating they were in a lower floor.

Netsui looked on, watching as Kamakiri appeared to be in his own espionage world as he tiptoed around the room, circumventing any clues towards Team E's whereabouts. Once he made sure he was busy and paying attention to something other than him, he briefly breathed in a quiet and slow breath before opening one of them while lowering his head away from the cameras.

The hazelnut faded from his iris, replaced by a milky white shade in an ever whiter sclera. He gazed down at the floor, the tile vanishing from his eye sight as the lower, second level came into view, and then the first level below that. Further away from him and Kamakiri, he could see Tokage and Itsuka sneakily moving up the staircase, nearing the male duo.

 **Quirk: Transparent Vision - a pervert's dream quirk! Allows the user to see through any surface or object. Be careful not to overdo it, or you might end up seeing what people had for breakfast!**

Kamakiri darted towards Netsui, forcing him to shut off his quirk out of habit. "They're getting-"

"Staircase, second floor," Netsui cut Kamakiri off mid talk, jogging over to the entrance and flicking the handle.

Kamakiri jerked back at the sudden assumption of command. Where the hell did this side of the guy come from, he had to wonder. "How do-"

"Trust me on this, alright?" Netsui said in a hurry, offering him an expectant grin.

Kamakiri wouldn't have none of it. "No, you're gonna tell me-"

"Argh! There's no time for this!" he stopped as he opened the door, taking one final look of defiance at Kamakiri. "Just stay here low by the door and keep listening. Once I give you the signal, you rush out at Tokage and drive her away from the bomb. I got Itsuka so don't worry," Netsui rushed out, shutting the door behind him and leaving behind an outraged.

"No, wait! What si-" Kamakiri slapped his mouth shut as he noticed his volume was risking the other team from finding the bomb location. Pressing the on button of the transceiver, he suppressed his outrage into stifling whispers. " _Shinshi, what the hell is wrong with you?! And what's the signal?_ "

" _You'll know it when you hear it, but for now shut up,_ " Netsui whispered in reply on the other line. " _They're near you,_ "

' _WHAT?!_ ' Mantis boy thought as sweat began developing on his palm. He squealed in reflex, making him clamp his mouth to stop anymore unwanted noise and attention towards himself or Netsui's unknown plan. Footsteps were heard inches from Kamakiri, outside of the current room he resided in, along with muttered conversations between two entities.

His breathed hitched as held it inside, not letting a single blow of oxygen to exit his lungs. Beads of sweat touched his fingertips as he desperately clung to what remained of his composure, though the tension pervading in the air was so thin Kamakiri could cut it with a finger blade. He didn't dare look out through the square window and ruin his chances of succeeding.

One thought popped up in the mandible man's head throughout the deathly silence.

' _Where's the goddamn signal, you bastard?!_ '

* * *

"And in the first two minutes already, there seems to be immediate development from the Hero team," All Might noted, scribbling down the merits for Team E. He didn't reprimand their front door entry since they quirks weren't versatile towards movement. "Looks like they learned a thing or two from the others on how to approach the objective. Rather than walking aimlessly around the labyrinth, they resorted to sticking near the walls to create less noise. An astute observation!"

"The Villain team, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. Very poor planning and preparations, a strained chemistry between young Kamakiri and Shinshi, and now Shinshi decided to act upon alone…" All Might mused. "The Villains will be getting demerits for this one," a sudden thought came to him. ' _I'm getting the biggest feeling of déjà vu…_ '

Class 1-B, or at least the majority, looked up at the various cameras lighting the otherwise pitch black room. Each of their expressions held differing emotions; some ranging from flowing anticipation, with Tetsu's mind split between both his friends' trial outcomes, others with a quizzical and analytical visage, particularly Jurota and Ibara for reasons concerning their combat style and state of mind.

One student, however, defied all odds among his peers in training, as he slumped forward, overcome by a sudden sense of sleep. Before he could pursue that intense desire fully, All Might swatted it away with his booming vocals. "Kuroiro, my boy! Please pay attention, this is an important learning experience for all of you!"

Kuroiro grunted with shut eyelids, annoyed at the disturbance. "Do I have to?" he asked lazily.

"Of course we do, man!" a hot headed Tetsu came up from behind him, throwing his fists up in the air for effect. "If we don't see where we could've done better, then how the hell are we supposed to get good at this?"

"Dude… last time I checked, we won," Kuroiro deadpanned. "If anything, you should be telling them that," he tilted his head towards Kaibara and Komori, whose visages turned bitter as the former gave Kuroiro the stink eye and a deep frown.

"Yeah, but you did all the work. It doesn't feel like a victory when it's one-sided like that," Tetsu said with a hint of a pout.

The pitch black boy groaned. "You get mad when you're losing, you get mad when you're winning…" he rubbed his palms across his face, trying to rid himself of the tiredness. "Are you ever satisfied?"

"Sh! Quiet down you two. The teams are getting closer," Honenuki chimed in with a finger to his teeth. On the screen above them, Itsuka and Tokage moved up the stairs towards the bomb's location on the third floor. "Ooo~, this match is gonna be so epic!" his spine shivered with giddy anticipation as he looked at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

The screen switched perspectives, showing Team D in the middle of a heated argument that the rest of the class couldn't figure out what it involved, which ended in Netsui putting his foot down and getting the final say in things. He quickly exited the room, leaving a panicking Kamakiri to fend for himself.

"Running away from the bomb and his teammate?" Honenuki said as Shinshi exited the border of the screen, and watching as the two teams were a door away from a battle. "He must be cooking up something fierce for the Hero team,"

Monoma snorted, his intricate tuxedo flowing with his motions. "I wouldn't count on it," he scoffed. "Someone like him has no chance of succeeding if he starts putting thought into his actions out of nowhere. It looks like he didn't even plan anything with Kamakiri in the time available, so he'll most likely just crash and burn,"

Honenuki cocked a brow. "What do you mean 'someone like him'?"

Monoma shrugged. "You know, a complete idio-AH!" he yelped as a startling pain coursed abruptly from his foot. Looking down, he saw Yui's foot weighing down heavily on his own. "K-Kodai-san… you've seemed to have stepped on my foot by accident," he said with a nervous chuckle as he could've sworn her foot doubled in size.

Yui glanced at him nonchalantly. "Not an accident," she said, then quickly turning her gaze back to the screen.

Monoma reeled back while shaking violently, sensing the malicious aura in her speech. "Ah, okay then…" he conceited silently, letting her sole drive deeper into his posh bones. As long as she didn't kill him, he should be fine.

* * *

Tokage and Itsuka's footsteps were as silent as the night. Creeping up the staircase towards the third floor, Tokage peered around the corner of the stairwell, making absolutely sure she didn't show her face too much to any 'villains' nearby. Steel padded walls and more pathways were the only things meeting her sight, with no sign of any trap planted by the 'villains'.

The dead silent static of the infrastructure remained unbroken as they set forth towards the next floor. They heard the clatter of doors opening and closing from atop, meaning they were getting closer to Shinshi and Kamakiri. The expanded movement of the camera at the end of the hall, Tokage denoted, told her that someone had rushed past it fairly recently, most likely in the time it took for them to arrive there.

' _So Tough Guy ain't one for setting up presents for the welcoming party, eh? I guess with a quirk and a personality like his I shouldn't be expecting any of that._ ' she giggled lightly at the thought, a bit of her tongue poking out of her lips in childish glee. ' _I bet Togaru-kun chewed him out for it,_ '

"Do you see them?" Itsuka asked expectantly, lagging behind her companion out of precaution. In truth, at first she wanted to lead the both of them to the objective, simply out of the desire of her heart, but quickly came around to the idea of being the 'sidekick' as it were. But was it too much to ask for Tokage to stop-

"Nope. Coast is clear, Red," Tokage affirmed, taking up the position of the leader. A position Itsuka was forced to agree upon at the start signal.

The domino mask clad 'hero' groaned. There it was again, that name. "Stop calling me that,"

"No can do, Red," Tokage shook her head without sparing Itsuka a single second as she moved out of the stairwell. She spoke like a Sergeant to her soldiers. "Operations like this one require code names so the enemy team stay oblivious to our real identities. Plus, Red rolls off the tongue so much better than Kendo, don'tcha think?" she said the last bit in her typical playful demeanor.

"Tokage-chan, you do know this is a simulation, and the guys already know who we are, right?" ' _And what's so bad about 'Kendo', anyway_?' She added in thought, pouting.

"So?" she asked rhetorically. "That doesn't mean we should slack off. We have to treat this whole thing like it's a real life or death situation, one hundred percent,"

"But-"

"One hundred percent!" she snapped around to face Itsuka, the comically commanding tone raising in a decimal pitch, momentarily disregarding the covert operation. Unbeknownst to them, a door jittered at the noise.

Itsuka was amazed she actually shrank back because of her perseverance. Especially considering her visage resembled a clown impersonating an authority figure. Must be that that mask of hers. She sighed reluctantly. "Okay..." with a serious nod from the Team Leader, Tokage continued to lead the duo forward. ' _She's taking this too seriously,_ ' Itsuka thought in chary. "But can you at least call me something less silly?"

"Alright, how about 'Yaoi Hands'?" Tokage offered with a cheeky grin.

"Red is fine." Itsuka grimaced.

Once Tokage made sure the halls were barren, she beckoned the kung fu woman to follow. Sticking close to the edges, they crept up to the closest door to them, their sedated breaths being the lone sound filling the vicinity. Withal, the distant taps of footsteps coming from the afar brought their resolve to a standstill.

It seemed they had reached the targeted level. Now it was time to locate the scattered Villain team and dispatch them as quick as possible. Itsuka picked up the capture tape from her belt buckle and tightened her hold on it, bracing for the inevitable.

* * *

"So far so good!" All Might exclaimed to no one in particular. "The Hero team managed to stay silent while approaching the bomb. At the same time, the Villain team is, at this moment, still split up for some undisclosed reason, and from the looks of it…" he gaped at Kamakiri, still shaking in his bandaged boots, his pin pricked pupils pleading out desperately for help. He shook his head in disappointment. "This match might be over in an instant,"

"Hey! Netsui's back," Tetsu called out aloud, causing the burly man to detract from his notes. The Class disparaged from awaiting with bated breaths as they looked at a different screen, depicting an adjacent room from the prior. The 'villain' in question crouched on all fours a little ways from the wall separating him from the Hero team. This peaked both the class' and All Might's curiosity. "What's he tryin' to do?"

"He's just staring at the wall…" Kuroiro stated in disbelief, seeing Netsui dart his eyes between two differing points on the grey concrete barrier. "Has he gone mental too?"

Monoma gaped at the camera detailing long haired teen's seemingly ridiculous garnering plenty of cringe filled and dishonorable reactions, then back to the camera showing the Hero team. The dots in his rational brain hemisphere traced and connected together to unfold Netsui's ingenious and improvised plan within him. He let out an innate cackle. "Well I'll be…"

Tetsu whipped to him, furrowing his metallic brows. "What?"

Monoma pointed at Netsui, an elegantly impressed smirk gracing his lips.

"He's tracking them."

* * *

Tokage paused her breaching, her armored leg lifted, bent and locked in place as the rapid and heavy stomps began to crescendo. Just before either of the duo could alert the other of the impending doom, the opposite barrier blasted open from sheer, unrelenting force, coating the hallway air in a thick cloud of grey and alabaster dust.

The impact of the debris and broken steel driving the dust forced Itsuka to shield her eyes with her arms as her ponytail flapped violently, while Tokage felt her balance waver, making her hop away to safety. She bumped into the double door, eliciting a strained grunt from the inanimate object.

With watering eyes, Itsuka toiled to keep her sight fixed on her surroundings. They fell upon a brown sleeved fist penetrating through the dust, swinging a hook directly at her downed defenses. Her mind kicked into overdrive, ordering her to jump out of the punch's trajectory in a split second, landing in a kung fu fighting stance.

From the corner of her peripherals, she descried the thin piece of tape clenched in the intruder's palm, the tin tip slapping against the concrete surface as it missed its target. The wind blown from the hook was enough to let the dust settle, revealing the one responsible for the ambush.

'Damn it!' Netsui cursed inwardly, emerging from the destroyed barrier, his chestnut cape waving the dust off him. 'I thought she'd block that attack, my whole plan was counting on Itsuka-chan getting captured right off the bat!'

"Tokage, the tape!" Itsuka called out, dashing towards her 'villain' friend, the capture tape firmly in her grasp.

' _There is no time to lose! The Heroes are already making their move, so be quick on your feet!_ ' Akuma sternly said. Netsui nodded inwardly.

"Hey! _I'm_ the leader here, Red!" Tokage indignantly said in tow, yet complied. She extended the tape with her hands and positioning it towards the enemy, the taste of victory already spreading on her tongue. Unfortunately for her, the glorious taste evaporated with a squawk just as it came when the door burst, a bandaged blade cutting the tape in half and producing sparks from the wall beside her. "Nevermind, you're on your own!"

"Shinshi, you dumbass!" Kamakiri's yell cracked because of the seething anger flowing from him, using the cutting edge on his finger to slash at Tokage's arm. Seeing the attack coming from a mile away, she evaded it. "Confirm your ideas with me before you pull this crap!"

 **Kamakiri Togaru. Quirk: Sharp Blade - He can turn any part of his body into a sword or dagger! He can also control the sharpness of the edges! Really saves a bundle on kitchen utensils.**

Netsui and Itsuka's distance closed swiftly. Netsui bent over and wrapped the capture tape around his knuckles, seeing the martial artist's unfaltering determination in her glare flare up as she neared him. 'If my predictions are right, her attack might strike me…'

Itsuka's body twirled when she halted at arms' reach, bringing a leg around to roundhouse kick him at the Crimson Riot's facsimile's neck. Netsui didn't stagger an inch, taking the brunt of the kick like a rock against a mountain. Instead, an erupting pain came from the female hero's instep, causing her to grit her teeth in unexpected affliction.

'Right there!' he thought out as he gripped her unclad leg with both hands tightly. Manipulating the momentum of the kicking force to his favour, Netsui planted his left foot firmly as an axis to pivot on his heel and hurl Itsuka towards the room he'd broken out of. The hero landed with a hard thud on the concrete, knocking the air out of her lungs. The villain momentarily worried over his opponents well being, but composed himself back to the situation at hand.

"Kamakiri! Keep the heroes away from the bomb and catch them, that sound good to you?" asked Netsui out loud to his villainous partner, a downed blue garment clad hero being the cynosure of his sight.

Swiping digit blades at a consistently fleeing Tokage, both of whom have extended the gap between them and their respective teammates, Kamakiri responded briefly. "Fine by me!"

"Perfect." he muttered to himself, reentering through the busted barrier.

With a final thrust of his miniscule blades and another evasive manoeuvre of his foe, Kamakiri managed to corner Tokage at the end of the hallway, with the frames of the window leading outside nudging the back of the agile hero. Her enclosed position forced her to gaze up at her fearsome opponent with childlike curiosity.

The differences in their individual presences were disconcerting. The hightower named Kamakiri stood loftily in contrast to one of the shortest students in Class 1-B by a full inch. His piercing, slanted gaze coming into eye contact with her own playful seriousness, the darkness of his end of the hall casting a shadow down his brows, giving his irises a sickening glow.

Digit blades extended to arm length swords as he inched his limbs outward slowly, the outside light shimmering on the discoloured edges forming along the forearm. The mandibles moved by themselves, the sharp tips clashing together, forming sparks that threatened to smoulder those that came in touch with it.

The sight would've made any normal human being shake in their boots and cower away in fear. However, Tokage was not known for being normal.

The woman grinned under her mask, unfazed. "Garu-kun,"

"Kage-chan," the blademan acknowledged with his own grin, cutting off the malice he attempted to inflict on her mind. Truth be told, he never for a second doubted Tokage would see right through him.

Tokage's outfit consisted of a standard hero outfit fit for someone whose quirk wasn't influenced by their attire: a skin tight, beige shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the shoulder blades, leaving her arms bare, discluding the outwardly innocuous black wristbands concealing circular bumps underneath. Her short amber shorts barely covered her thighs, being held up by a utility belt wrapped by pockets full of miscellaneous items, including the wristbands, and the sledgehammer faces covering Tokage's toe caps and heels.

But what stood out the most about Tokage's hero costume was her mask.

Or, as Kamakiri examined further, her scaly muzzle. A much, much larger swamp green muzzle than the one HoundDog-sensei wore. The razor sharp, toothy snarl twisted at the corners into a maddening smile - though the blademan was unable to tell if it was intentional or not - covering the entirety of her mouth, nose and cheeks.

"Nice hero costume," he said, giving the girl a once-over and admiring it. Not because he found it endearing - it _definitely_ wasn't - but because it reflected her.

"I could say the same to you," she cooed, eyeing the mantis boy from head to toe, examining her foe's attire. She licked her lips underneath the mask while gripping her left leg and flexing her back, giving him a sultry look. "Sexy boy~."

Kamakiri facepalmed as a blush grew on his face, causing Tokage to giggle teasingly. ' _This is gonna be tough…_ '

* * *

Itsuka coughed as she was finally able to get her bearings with her. ' _Wow. Netsui is much stronger than I thought,_ ' as she thought this, the swelling bruise on her foot throbbed uncomfortably. The aching pangs only worsened when she had to stand up, because she knew that her friend turned rival, despite visible holding back against someone objectively weaker in terms of strength, would not let up on her for a second.

Leaning her hand on the pillar beside her, Itsuka bounced on her good leg until she was on her feet. The pain ached the more pressure she applied to it, but she forced herself to ignore it. She wasn't one to blurt out excuses to herself when shit tended to hit the fan, and she wasn't gonna start now. It was her turn to show off to the class what she was capable of.

Still, in her mind, it felt like she was being shadowed by someone else.

"Sorry about the harsh toss, but I'm suppose to act like the villain here," Itsuka glanced over her shoulder to see Netsui standing unyieldingly on the blast entry. "So don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're my friend," a smirk of resolve pursued his lips, though Itsuka made out a hint of unease.

Itsuka gave him her own form of a cocky grin. "What makes you think I can't just go out the same way you came in?"

"Well," he began with a slow roll of his eyes, nodding towards the side of the room. "If you can lift that, I'll be very impressed,"

With furrowed brows in confusion, Itsuka swiveled her head to see what Netsui meant, and ending up in utter shock. The exit door, her only other salvation from her the impenetrable human wall, was barred by… a giant broken pillar?

Her eyes widened even further when, a few feet from the door, a cracked foundation missing a good portion of its ten foot connection, crumbling under of the weight of nothing as the pebbles of concrete fell weightlessly from the protruding spikes.

"You like that?" Netsui asked. "It was sorta spur of the moment, since I originally thought about bringing you down to the lower level, but I knew you'd never fall for that,"

"How… how did you do this?!" Itsuka asked in outrage, a shaking limb motioning to the barred door. "You didn't even make any noise,"

Netsui gazed up in thought, knowing full well the real reason for it.

 **Quirk: Silence - this quirk grants the user the ability to put up a soundproof barrier 10 ft around him. _Sneaky sneaky._**

"It's easier than it looks," he simply said. Itsuka jerked back at his cool-headed attitude.

 _"There might be the chance that we could get expelled if we don't come up to the task,"_

The hero remembered her talk with her friend sometime ago. To her, it looked like Netsui was still hiding something deep within his heart, a struggle so jarring it was enough to make his perception of his accomplishments all for naught. The Netsui that stood in front of her didn't seem like the same boy, with his confident posture and upturned frown. The differences were like night and day.

A breath escaped her lips, closing her eyes in contemplation. "Netsui,"

"Hmm?" he cocked a brow.

"You really are amazing," she spoke from the bottom of her heart as she opened her eyes, the fire behind them rising with her determined grin. Itsuka lifted her injured leg, taking up a stance Netsui and Akuma recognized as chinese martial arts, her arms stretched towards the ground and bent to him. "But so am I!"

Akuma chuckled internally. ' _Oh Itsuka-chan,_ ' he said as Netsui crouched in a freestyle position. ' _He knows._ '

* * *

"In one fell swoop, young Shinshi succeeded in not only disrupting the heroes' ambush with his own and splitting them apart, but also in establishing communication and cooperation in the Villain team in the nick of time. Remarkable!" All Might commented in his bellowing tenor alongside his class of wide eyed students. "Though that doesn't detract from the damage, young Shinshi's quick wit is certainly something to admire!"

"Alright, my man!"

"Damn, that was so amazing!"

"Go get 'em Kamakiri!"

"Well done." the class' cheers came at full force.

Monoma nodded amidst the excitement. "Hmm, I suppose I might have to give credit where credit is due," while he said this, a phantom pain grew on his foot, to which he did his best to ignore. "But, Sensei, aren't you missing something crucial about the current tide of the fight?"

"Why, whatever do you mean, young Monoma?" All Might swiveled to meet his student.

"Isn't it obvious?" Monoma shrugged. "Have you not noticed how Kendo-san didn't use her quirk on him?"

"Y...Yes, I have," the Pro Hero hesitated to reply.

"Don't you think there is a reason for that?" Monoma pointed at the screen showcasing the room where Itsuka laid. "Her quirk involves growing her hands to exponential sizes, bigger than the average body without any overly shape altering quirk. With the limit of which they can grow, she needs to be somewhere that can provide the space required for her to activate it."

"Strategically speaking, Netsui would be far better off just staying and fighting her off in the cramped hallway, where her inability to use her quirk gave her a severe disadvantage against a strength based quirk user. So now with her in a commodious space, Netsui ruined his upper hand. If I had any say on this, I would mention that, despite the strong start, Netsui is kind of sloppy on the details," he met All Might's shaking sight. "Wouldn't you agree, All Might-sensei?"

All Might hesitated once more, letting the information and the fact that one of his students had outsmarted him again sink in. ' _Young Monoma must have some relation with young Yaoyorozu!_ ' "Y-You are correct, young man… although I'd have to add," he picked his equanimity back up as he turned to the screen showing Netsui blocking the only available exit. "I believe Shinshi was willing to take that risk,"

"How so?" Monoma asked with an inquisitive brow.

All Might opened his mouth to answer, but was quickly shut down by Juzo shushing them both. "Shut up, the match is getting good!"

"Right…" All Might muttered, and despite the nervous jitters, his trademark grin remained intact…

Mostly.

* * *

The tattered young woman stood unhinged above the pools of blood, unmoving as she glared daggers in the midst of body piles. Her jade pupils scrutinized each and every laboriously cut and bruised carcasses that once held life, lives that woefully happened to cross her Hachimanian reckoning.

Her slender legs were sore, as if finger length needles pricked at her delicate skin like constant static, near to the point of drawing blood. She learned to ignore that agony. She learned to ignore a lot of agony.

The matted, dimly dark pupils studied the bodies scrupulously for any fleeting breath, gargling sob, weak and wobbly motion, or what have anyone remaining at the brink of their unavoidable demise. Nothing was said, nothing was done, no sound, no life, nothing. They were dead, dead, dead, all three of them. Dead and gone.

One two three, one two three, one two three, she counted, over and over again inside her head, she felt herself slipping, again and again, but she knew. Not one time but two, in her brain. Just her brain. There were three, three bodies. Three people. Three bodies. It made sense. She calmed down, allowing herself a moment of peace.

No! Hang on…

' _Yes..._ ' she thought as she turned to face the bodies. ' _One... two... three. Three sorry excuses for heroes that won't bother me anymore. Now... where was I?_ '

Oh, of course, she forgot. How could she forget, _how the **hell** could she forget?!_

She stiffly and sluggishly cranked away from the lifeless corpses - three corpses, of two sets -, the _one_ colossal building of the U.A facility shining brighter than the dark alley she unceremoniously stood him. The prestigious school shimmered as brilliantly as the sun, washing the alley in the glow of glory.

A glow the little blood stained lady downright rejected, whose murderous aura wouldn't let that gleeful light spread anywhere near her or her path.

" _You damn heroes..._ " she muttered through dried and chapped lips, her voice reflecting the venomous bile in her being. She tucked the U.A. student ID neatly in her pocket for the third time. " _For a_ _ll that you've never done for me_ _..._ _I will make you see hell..._ "

* * *

 **A/N: Oh boy, the stuff I got planned for Kamakiri and Tokage… so juicy.**

 **I always feel self-conscious about describing the scenario too much, but then I remember chapter 3 was over 3000 words of Netsui going to class and talking to people… and I cry.**

 **Also, as I was writing this chapter, "The Median" garnered over 1000 views for this fic alone! Like… holy shit! The first 4 chapters made 2000 views collectively, and the last one got half of that. If someone could tell me why, like I'm getting more exposure or something, please tell me. I want to know.**

 **In the meantime, I'll be playing like either a mofo or a damn newb in Tekken 7 and Gigantic. See ya later!**


	7. 1-B's Firepower!

**A/N: A filler chapter of sorts with two purposes: to establish the kind of personalities and character arcs I want the students of 1-B to have, and so you guys can actually review the next chapter, since if I uploaded it now some of you couldn't review it 'cause ya technically already did.**

 **Do whatever you want. Just know, in case you want to say I'm dragging the story out for the views, the next chapter will be posted shortly after this one.**

 **You can say it needs panning though. It's why I cry myself to sleep.**

 **Also, here is a template for who's up against who in chronological order, for those who don't know these characters or find them hard to remember:**

 **Team B (Tetsutetsu and Kuroiro) vs Team F (Kaibara and Komori)**

 **Team G (Bondo and Rin) vs Team C (Awase and Honenuki)**

 **Team A (Yanagi and Monoma) vs Team J (Kodai and Shoda)**

 **Team I (Shiozaki and Tsuburaba) vs Team H (Shishida and Tsunotori)**

 **Team D (Kendo and Tokage) vs Team E (Kamakiri and Shinshi).**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Tetsutetsu skid on a corner, pointing at the fleeing villain duo. "He's getting away with the bomb!"

"I can see that, idiot," Kuroiro came seconds behind him.

Komori stepped in front of the heroic duo, blocking them from Kaibara and the bomb's escape route. "I'm sorry about this, but I have to stop you both," the shy 'villain' forced the words out.

She spawned a tapestry of beige hued fungi on the arms of her pristine white hero outfit and pointed them at Tetsu and Kuroiro. Brown clouds of spores spewed out of the mushrooms towards them, and for a moment Komori hesitated in her decisionmaking.

"Crap, Tetsu! Don't sniff th-"

"HA!" Tetsutetsu chuckled as he stepped into the cloud, covering him entirely. "Is that seriously all you got?! You'd've had a better chance just fighting me head… hea… head on..."

His eyes grew heavier and his balance was shot as he attempted to take another step, only to wobble around aimlessly. "H-hey room… would ya stop spinning around so much?" he asked, too drunk on fumes to make heads or tails of anything, before falling on the floor, the spores knocking him unconscious.

"God damn it…" Kuroiro pulled up the collar of his venta black, skintight suit over his nose and mouth as the spore cloud filled the hall. "And I actually needed the bastard,"

"I-I-I'm sorry, T-Tetsutetsu, I d-d-didn't m-mean to put so much paralyzing effects on my sh-shrooms," Komori clumsily stuttered, washing away any villainous malice given to her for the trial.

" _Nyaaaaa_..." the metal hero drooled out with his tongue lulled out. Komori leaned into Tetsu's body before retracting, realizing she wasn't suppose to care. ' _Oh dear! He looks fine, but w_ _hat if he's really hurt? I couldn't live with myself if I knew I hurt someone! Oh, why hasn't All Might-_ '

"Paralysis, eh? Damn, that's kind of a drag," Kuroiro broke her out of her train of worried thought. "I'll be honest, I didn't take you for someone who'd take it this far to win. I'll give you props on that,"

Komori froze. Not at the praise - the ominous vibes prevented it - but at the realization that she inadvertently revealed valuable information about her quirk.

 **Komori Kinoko: Quirk - Mushroom. Her body can produce any and all kinds of mushrooms. As long as she has a clear picture of the mushroom and its primary use in her mind, she can create it.**

 **Obvious restrictions may apply, for legal reasons.**

"Oh no!" Komori covered her face with her hands in embarrassment, accidentally growing red capped mushrooms on her fingers. Her dressed arms waved frantically to his direction. "C-Can you p-p-please forg-get what you heard, if… if it's not t-too much to ask…?" she turned bashfully at the end.

"Are… are you serious?" Kuroiro sighed irritatedly with an incredulous look. However, Komori answered only with a meek whine, opting to sulk in her own uncoordinated mistake. Her eyes - or what Kuroiro assumed to be her eyes since they were eclipsed by a red cap and a bob cut - darted between the unconscious idiot and the hallways Kaibara went in.

The blackened boy's lips tightened to a scowl, rubbing his tired and stressed temples. "Great. First, Iron Man over here," Kuroiro looked down to the mumbling mess of his teammate. "Blows our cover and you guys run away with the core, now you decided to grow a conscience?" he took in a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You know what, for both of our sake, I'm just going to end this here,"

"W-W-What?!"

Kuroiro didn't give her time to react. Black blobs of liquids penetrated through the threads of his completely blackened suit and latched onto Komori's fungi. She gasped sharply, trying to pull away from the ink, but the black hero filled the floor below and behind her in a thin, yet sturdy line of darkness. The only spot clear of the blackness was around the unconscious Tetsutetsu.

Encasing her figure, she fidgeted nervously and panic-stricken beneath the tightness, but the darkness gripped her for dear life, objecting to her escape.

"Don't try to get out. I highly doubt you'd do anything productive," she yelped at his monotonous tone and bored expression. What drew in her panic, however, was the lack of blackness on his skin. Somewhere between then and now, his face turned a pale hue. "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go end this whole thing," Kuroiro said, leaving Komori trapped and without a hint of worry over his downed teammate.

He passed through the hallway, walking on the black trail of liquid laden on his equally black espadrilles. To him, he felt like walking on a cloud. A very soft cloud. 'Shit, I need to get some shut-eye,' The hallways was coated with the same thin strands marks; particularly on the walls, turning the the next corner over. According to the stiffening and relaxing of the few strands, he managed to ensnare the villainous fugitive in his web, bomb still held firmly in his arms.

"Hey, Kaibara-kun, be honest with me," he started, rounding the corner to see Kaibara struggling against his tendrils. "Did I go overboard?" Kuroiro paused, then shook his head. "Actually don't answer that. I don't care."

Pacing to the front his trapped foe and the core, Kuroiro looked down his nose. Or, pig snout, he'd say. Kuroiro could feel the humiliated discomfort from Kaibara's glare. He winced slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that. Can't really see through walls, ya know?"

"Damn it..." Kaibara nasally muttered under his breath. "I was so close..."

Kuroiro snorted.

"No you weren't," a black glove fell on the core.

* * *

"The Hero team wins!" All Might's voice bellowed through the speaker system, his tone a bit more stressed than necessary. He sighed in relief. This first group's trial went a whole lot better than the other class', and there didn't seem to be any ill will from any of his students. If the day went on like this, maybe he wouldn't need worry over another student being thrust into the infirmary, or having to deal with Shuzenji's reprimands.

A chill ran up his spine at the thought.

The classroom of junior heroes gawked at the black boy in tights and the calming, borderline bored ease he carried himself with. It almost felt insulting to the other team.

"Man, I really thought I had this guy figured out... guess not,"

All Might chuckled merrily. "Of course, young Awase, such a thing is to be expected from a recommended student!"

" **Kuroiro is a recommended student?!** " Class 1-B yelled out in surprise, simultaneously.

All Might trembled slightly from the volume shift, tilting his head to the students. "Y-yes, he is... did young Kuroiro not tell you?"

The class shook their heads, profound shock etched upon their faces as the information slowly sank in. "Alright then..." All Might turned back to his yawning student, retracting his tendrils back to his form. His visage displayed a hint of relief, and knowing him, it might be because of the trial's end. "It must be the nerves,"

* * *

"Did you find the bomb yet?"

"No! Where the hell is it?!"

"We've looked everywhere and we can't find it!"

"The villains were here a moment ago, did they run with it?"

"Is it invisible? Did any of them turn the bomb invisible or something?!"

"I'm sure they don't have that quirk, but I think Honenuki can make the ground melt or something,"

"Then look harder!"

"I'm trying!"

"There they are!" Awase burst through the door, his welder's helmet hiding his tense visage of determination mixed with concentration, capture tape between his fingers in one hand and the other extended to an open palm.

"Crap! We should've kept quiet!" Bondo jerked back at the sudden confrontation, a blob of glue leaking from his right most hole.

"Brace yourself, Bondo, Awase may be alone that's no reason to- huh?!" Rin was interrupted the floor he stood on sunk him like quick sand, covering him up to his stomach and arms. Before Rin could get out or Bondo could help, it harden again, ensuring he didn't get out. "Bondo, I'm stuck!"

"Ah, I'll get you-"

"No you fucking don't!" Awase fiercely screamed as he tackled the distracted cemedine quirk user, causing the both of them to crash down to the ground and skid a few feet from the trapped Rin. Bondo glanced behind him with a gasp, feeling the villain's palm on his lower back and seeing the other touch the ground under him.

Bondo attempted to reach an arm around him to grab and pull away at the villain, but Awase managed to weld his gargantuan body with the ground. He struggled against the bind, desperate to be release from the quirk, however to no avail. Awase wrapped the capture tape around Bondo's head, and the horn rang through the speaker system.

" _The Villain team wins!_ "

"Booyeah! Did ya hear that, Honenuki?!" Awase called out, lifting up his welder's helmet to reveal an ear to ear grin.

The floor beside Bondo softened, waving as a figure emerged from it. "Yeah, you know it!" Honenuki, along with his victorious, toothy smirk, stepped off the ground and running towards his partner.

Awase braced himself, bending back at his running partner, before leaped at him as they clashed their stomachs in typical victorious fashion and cheering loudly. The hero duo could only sulk in their own shame, and witness the villains' fierce celebration.

"We won!" Honenuki pumped his fists up.

"You're god damn right we did, man!"

Rin tried to get a word in edgewise. "Good work, you two, now if you wouldn't-"

"See, what'd I tell you about splitting up being the best strategy?"

"Alright, I'll admit, that was pretty smart, "

"That's great, teamwork is very important, but can you please-"

"You know, for an amateur 'n' all,"

"What are you getting at here, buddy?" Honenuki looked at Awase cock-eyed.

"Um, guys-"

Awase chuckled wholeheartedly, a cocky smirk spreading on his lips as he butted heads with Honenuki. "I think you know exactly what I'm gettin' at, pretty boy,"

"Ohoho, I'll make you eat your words."

As Honenuki returned the smirk and gesture and they entered an unwavering staring contest, Bondo and Rin grew nervous at their welded and sunken predicament.

"Hey, Bondo-san," the man in question turned to the literally sunken hero. "Do you think their gonna forget about us?"

The cemedine quirk user looked at the villain duo muttering challenges to one another, then at Rin, nodding curtly.

Rin sighed. "Yeah, I thought so,"

* * *

Netsui whistled in amazement. "That was really quick. Honenuki and Awase-san turned the match completely in their favor so fast, just imagine what you could do with a quirk like theirs,"

' _Not to mention, the two of them are quite passionate. A little crass, but passionate._ '

The student in the tuxedo chuckled. "Truly, it's to be expected from a recommended student that _actually works_ for his title," Monoma spared a momentary glance at the black student.

Kuroiro squinted at him. "Buzz off." he mumbled tiredly.

"Though I gotta ask, where _did_ the core go?" he asked with a scratch of his chin. Netsui felt a tap on his side, making him whip around. "Hmm?" his eyes fell on Yui, who pointed her finger up, telling him silently to look at the ceiling. He complied. "What the...?!" Netsui's mouth opened in shock. "Is that the..."

"It is." Yui quietly added, confirming his suspicions. "Smart move."

"Hehe, yeah..." Netsui rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, receiving a slap from reality at the prospect of his ambitious competition. "Real smart,"

* * *

Peeking around the corner of the hallway, a four foot tall Yui inspected the dimly lit area. Her raven eyes inspected the vacant halls through a teal domino mask, stretching for another block before it split in two directions. She found no sign of villains nearby, although Yui felt a very obnoxious energy emanating from the walls.

The 'villainess' was clad in a skin tight bodysuit, sewn with three shades of blue ranging from lighter to darker on the inner to outer sutures respectively. It fit her snugly, allowing her to move freely in it in whatever size she chose.

Yui snapped her fingers to catch her partner's attention behind her, who in turn yelped in weary shock. She turned to Nirengeki, shushing him silently with a digit to her lips.

"Don't scare me like that!" he hushly whispered to her in a mix of relief and desperation.

"You're scared?" she asked him quietly, though to Nirengeki, this was her default emotion.

The 'villain's form stiffened. "W-What, me? Scared? No, no, that's ridiculous. Why would I be scared, I'm not scared I can't be scared heroes aren't scared are you scared 'cause I'm not," his eyes shrunk in size as he turned to avoid Yui's emotionless gaze. "Scared, that is... which I'm totally not..."

Yui blinked, staring Nirengeki up and down his frame, noting the ceaseless shaking of his legs.

"You're scared."

" _Of course I'm scared!_ " Nirengeki's tenor threatened to raise in pitch as he suddenly grasped her arms, making her momentarily pop up her brows. "But the more important question is, why aren't you?"

Yui gave a moment to think about it, before lethargically shrugging her shoulders.

The nervous boy's head and arms fell downcast, the dread in his soul weighing him down more than his shoulder braces ever could. "I'm gonna die here..." he muttered lowly.

" _Yes you will..._ "

"Gah!" the duo jerked back at the ominous voice. The bravado in Yui's leadership position kicked in to full gear, taking a stance with her back to the core, growing a single meter and taking stance against the potential 'heroes' ambush.

"Please tell me that was you,"

Yui glanced at him from the corner of her eye and shook her head.

A shiver ran up Nirengeki's spine, shaking him to his very core, leaving his bones to shudder like a rattling skeleton. Whipping around vain and wildly in search for the origin, the shaking boy slowly to the still emotionless girl. "This is bad," a disembodied, unstable guffaw erupted from thin air, sending a shudder deeper down his core, as if it heard the distressed boy's wailing.

The room tiles drunkenly twisted and turned in their sight, distorting the very reality the 'villain' duo stood on. Ripples manifested from the floor and walls, the solidity of the surroundings vanishing the more it went on. Invertebrate hands rose from the water-like surface, languidly hunting to grab a hold of anything nearby.

"Alright..." he whimpered quietly, taking in a deep breath as the sweat poured from his head. "I-I'm n-not the o-o-only one s-seeing this, right?"

Yui shook her head again.

"Thank god,"

" _God can't help you now._ " Before he could breath a sigh of relief, a cold, unwanted hand laid on his shoulder, briskly taking the oxygen off his lungs and wiping the color off his face. Shakily glancing over his shoulder, Nirengeki's breath caught sharply in his throat as he stared up at the menace responsible for everything.

Floating above the chubby boy's stature, the ghostly image of Yanagi, her pointed witch hat casting a dire shadow over her pale visage. Her iris, devoid of pupils, gaped at the shaking 'villain' with an expression detached from humanity. Her ghastly hair bobbed as she inched closer to him, with Nirengeki sweating and shrinking away from her every step.

A small mouth opened to utter, and the color on the 'villain's face had flushed away, frozen in fear.

"Boo."

An unbelievably acute screech, uncharacteristic for the boy's gender, left Nirengeki's throat at a glass shattering volume even the ghost of Yanagi and the deadpan Yui retracted in slight bewilderment. They could swear the speaker's busted from the sound.

It fell short however. As the oxygen exited his lungs, Nirengeki grew dizzy from the panic causing him to faint on the spot. Yanagi blinked at him, picking at her ears to see if they were bleeding.

Yui sighed, crestfallen. Now that they lost, that meant-

Monoma's ghost emerged from the floor, laughing wholeheartedly in that obnoxious tone that got under her skin. "That sure was easy, don't you think, Kodai-san?"

The girl in question snapped her neck suddenly, catching him off guard in his own trepidation. "Ah, nevermind what I said..." he looked away from her, the corner of his grin trembling. Monoma still felt Yui's burning gaze behind him.

* * *

Vines crept up all around Tsunotori, giving her little leeway to escape their prickly grasp. Leaping back and further away from the core objective, the pony 'hero' avoided another green barrage, trotting rapidly on all fours as more vines came barreling her way.

Ibara, clad in a snow white dress hung just below her feet and a gleaming golden crown of leaves adoring her head, held her prayer position as her vines pursued Tsunotori. Despite her disdainful 'villainess' position, she took extra care in avoiding her trapped classmates. Occasionally, though, she tended to slip up.

"Hey, watch it!" a captured and fairly annoyed Tsuburaba spat out as a prick narrowly grazed the pillar he stuck wrapped around on.

"My sincerest apologies, Tsubu-kun," she politely called back to him, with Tsuburaba huffing a breath in return. She heard a pained gasp above her, and turned with a bow. "And you as well, Shishida-kun,"

If only Shishida could move more without the green restraints and the inevitable cuts, he'd dismiss the apology with a hand. "It's quite alright, really. Just a scratch," he sheepishly said, choosing to remain still, as his failed escape attempt left him with a sore reminder.

Ibara nodded sharply, focusing back on the task at hand.

Tsunotori dodged a vine coming at her waist, swatting it with her large horns and stepping back enough to catch her breath. She gazed attentively at Ibara, who didn't look like she'd broken sweat over her assault. Various vine strands spanned the room's opposite walls, keeping the core inside of a barb wire-like fence. ' _My horns can break through that, but I can't get close to it. Shiozaki is too good! Shishida, please, what will I do?_ '

A droplet of liquid cascaded down to Ibara's nose, causing her to pause briefly. She crossed her eyes to the drop, poking at the sudden sensation trailing down her bridge and pulling away her hand. ' _Red?_ ' she thought astoundedly. ' _How strange... where did it come from?_ '

Another drop fell down, this time some inches from her. Looking up, she followed the path the liquid took, leading to the trapped Shishida and his ties. Like a non fully closed tap, the crimson liquid dripped freely between the pricks.

"Is something the matter, Shiozaki-san?" Shishida worriedly asked.

Ibara didn't answer as another crimson droplet fell through the binds and onto her forehead. Her puzzled expression turned to one of realization, then to a blank gaze. The 'villainess' lost her sense of balance as unconsciousness took over, causing her to fall over, the vines below effortlessly cushioning her form. The green fence lost its strength as it plucked off the walls, cutting off the link with their quirk user.

Shishida and Tsunotori's brows knitted together, his binds loosening enough for him to escape. Their eyes made contact as they looked at each other in utter puzzlement, wondering what made their classmate black out.

" _Um... the heroes win?_ " the feeling of All Might's confusion over the circumstances was shared by his students, both in the exercise and the observation room.

All expect for one.

"This did not just happen!" Tsuburaba flailed around in his tape prison.

* * *

The scope of the binoculars blurred up his peripherals, but it did little to deter his sight from the alleyway. Clocking at a 200 meter radius in accordance with the glass' reticle, the man looked on at the soon-to-be crime scene. A young, blonde little girl squaring up against three others students, he deduced from the school attire, about the same age but younger - definitely younger - than him.

He saw the young girl, splattering the student's guts inside out without a second thought. The pieces of sliced flesh, blood and intestines rested on her daunting expression, and he could only let his imagination wonder what the victims' screams sounded like. A gurgling mess, a silent scream, anything that prevented the eye of the populace from prying in curiosity or horror. This woman was young, but she knew her way around the rope.

The man placed the binoculars down, searching inside his jean pocket and retrieving a flip phone. Removing his ski mask, the man dialed the number of his current associate. He put the phone to his ear and spun away from the scene through the bedroom window to the adjacent bed and the stiff, balding, fat, formally dressed man 'resting' on top.

A pure white shard, no larger than the man's index, was lodged in the fat man's shoulder, and the man extracted the shard, the fat man's body broke its rigor mortis stiffness, his limbs falling like jelly to the sides of the cramped bedding. A deep crimson liquid seeped from the wound and onto the fabric, coating the threads in a thickening layer of early demise.

On the other end of the call, the contact finally picked up, as a deep male voice spoke with impatience. " _What do you want?_ "

"Hello to you too, sir," the man replied with just as much nonchalance in his tone as the shard melted into his palm.

" _I'm busy, cut to the chase. I need you to run by HQ for the plan briefing,_ "

The man thought for a moment, wincing slightly. "No can do, sir,"

The contractor on the other end sighed. " _Why?_ "

"Because I may have found another helping hand,"

There was no noise from his associate, only the sound of steady breathing and humming. The man figured he must've hooked him with the premise.

" _One of your clients, I presume?_ " the voice spoke with edging interest.

"No, sir," the man turned to the window, reminiscing of the crime scene. "Do you by any chance know of that new killer girl? Y'know, the skinny lass that escaped the cops a few weeks ago?"

" _Ohoho, my good man,_ " yep, that was it. He got his attention with that one. " _If you can get her to HQ in one piece and have her join us, I will pay you triple your fee,_ "

The man chuckled. "I knew you'd say that, sir. Give me a month to finish my business and I'll bring her over,"

" _Deal. Don't you dare fail me on this, got it?_ "

"Don't worry, that's not what you paid me for. Have a good day now," he ended the call. The man stood above the suited body, pulling up the camera on his phone and snapping a quick picture of the downed figure. He then placed the phone in his pocket and exited the house into the sunny afternoon.

* * *

 **A/N: And that's it for this chapter, hope you all don't mind this little addition. Also, if any of you have any ideas for the hero costumes the rest of the class should have please tell me, 'cause I have no clue what to make of them.**

 **All the girls I may sexualize are all works of fiction (DISCLAIMER!).**

 **I'm not saying y'all can't call me out, but first suck on my diction.**

 **Fav, follow and review as always. Now, onto the real chapter... which will be coming... it's at 3700 words right now... I swear.**

 **pls dont hit me i luv u.**


	8. Duality

**A/N: NAME CHANGE! It's much simpler, gets the point home and hits the tongue so much better…**

 **Yeah, I ain't fooling anyone. You may be kinda irritated about the unexpected hiatus this story went on, and the second false update that was just me inserting the previous chapter into chapter 5.**

 **I'd say more about me losing motivation, and about how I need to force myself to write but do I really care at this point? *see end notes for proper explanation***

 **Also, on chapter 2, I tweaked the final scene a bit. It's not much, just a added another piece of clothing to Netsui's attire at the exam gate.**

 **Fuck it, promotion time!**

 **(Fanfiction's URL)/forum/My-Hero-Academia-Super-RP/179348/**

* * *

Arm length metal edges clashed stridently with footed hammer heads, bright orange sparks floated weightlessly off the collisions. The grating of stainless steel swords and hammers meeting pierced the hallways, blocking out the grunts of a defensive Kamakiri, stressed to keep a secretly and wickedly grinning Tokage away from the core. Sweat dropped from his furrowed brow.

Tokage continued her one legged onslaught, hopping expertly on her still attached lower limb as the other regenerated at a fixed pace, finding an admittedly unhealthy pleasure in fighting someone so close to her. In her mind, it felt akin to a thousand yen bet for the victor of an arm wrestling competition between friends. Tokage would be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying herself.

She'd be lying as well if she said Garu-kun hiding his panic wasn't absolutely hillarious.

The dinosaur masked hero swung the hammer at the villain's abdomen. Kamakiri bent himself back and leaped away from Tokage, avoiding the attack. Tokage's grin curled even further as she brought her hammer upwards diagonally, forcing the mantis boy to throw his head back. He knew he was feeding into her plan of driving them closer to the objective, but despite being on the 'villain' side and having enough strength, he knew he couldn't harm Tokage. At least not intentionally.

Bringing her leg weapon at a horizontal slash from Kamakiri, Tokage spun herself around flowingly like a ballerina and aimed her foot's hammer head downwards towards her villain's chest. Crossed blades blocked the hammer's trajectory, eliciting a loud ting from the force. Kamakiri lost his balance from the momentum, but steadied himself quickly, slinging his arms out and casting the hero's weight off of him.

Tokage giggled. "This is so much fun!" she said jubilantly. "We should do this more often. You know, inside of school, of course,"

Kamakiri remained still as he retracted his worn out blades back into his skin, drawing out a long sigh. From the way she was engaging him, it looked like she was disregarding the rules the more they went at it. "I thought I was supposed to be the villain…" he muttered loudly enough for Tokage to hear.

The hero stuck out her tongue as her newly grown, naked foot touched the concrete. "Hey! I find that very offensive, mister!" she yelled out, detaching her other leg and wielding it like the first one with her free hand. "Just for that, I'll use _both_ of my gams!" she twirled her deadly weapons around menacingly while charging at the mantis boy.

Kamakiri's neck shrunk at the threat, wrinkling his gargantuan, skinny nape. The mantis boy's eyes widened at the rapidly bounding hero, summoning the blades into his arms once again and silently praying to whatever god was out there listening in to command her to be gentle.

 _"Kamakiri! Come in, Kamakiri!"_ the alarmed voice of Netsui sounded on the mantis boy's wireless transceiver, followed closely by a thwack and a grunt. " _I keep hearing noises from your end. You doing alright?_ "

Kamakiri leaped back from an incoming double piledriver, colliding instead with the floor and cracking it. He pressed the transceiver to respond. "Just peachy," he exasperated, evading another strike from an increasingly deranged Tokage. "You faring any better?"

"Um…" he let the question hang as Itsuka delivered a flurry of feints and missed blows, his head snapping back and forth between the blurry arms, with his own at the ready, but then widening his oculars in surprise as the domino mask clad hero swept him from under his foot. Using the villain's balance shift to her advantage, Itsuka drove her elbow straight down his chest, sending the flailing foe down, but not without earning a jolt of pain in her funny bone.

Stopping the fall with his palm, Netsui pushed his only firmly planted foot up and flipped backwards, nearly striking the tip of his boot to Itsuka's defenseless chin. Seeing where the leg was aiming for, the hero sprung away, the tip narrowly scraping her skin. She landed on her bruised foot, momentarily buckling at the white pain coursing suddenly, as Netsui collected himself with a pant before she jumped back to a one footed stance.

Netsui pressed his finger on the transceiver. "Define better," he said, facing down the bearer of a blazing fire burning through jade eyes.

 _"Gah! Whatever you do, don't let Kendo anywhere near the bomb. I already got my hands full with Tokage-chan,"_ Kamakiri grunted to the earpiece, putting Netsui on high alert.

 _"Are you calling me fat?!"_ Netsui heard Tokage's demented voice on the transceiver.

 _"N-NO! I meant-"_

Netsui was now fully petrified for Kamakiri's life.

"Keep it together, I'll be right with you," before he could put his words into practise, Itsuka leaped at the villain, balling her hand to a fist at her side. Netsui braced himself to receive and counter the hit, but was shocked to see her fist growing to gigantic sizes. His eyes widened as the enlarged fist connected to his whole torso, sending him crashing towards a pillar, smashing it upon impact.

He coughed out dust as he shakily sat up. "Nevermind," he croaked to the earpiece, jumping back to his feet.

' _My goodness, even I felt that!_ ' Akuma chimed in as Itsuka augmented her other hand, peering at her opponent with a victorious smirk.

'I think we'll be feeling a lot more than that if this drags on,' he thought to Akuma, feeling a developing vigor transitioning up his spine to the rest of his body. Netsui felt tiny horns protruding from his scalp, along with canines growing. 'Thanks, man,'

' _Netsui-kun, I'm telling you this as your guardian,_ ' Akuma began, his tone laced in caution. ' _You will need it,_ '

"Well, looks like your 'Standing like a wall' plan isn't holding much water," Itsuka remarked with a cocky smirk.

"Huh- wha... how did you know about that?" Netsui asked in utter confusion.

She raised a brow, that practically screamed out 'Really?' to him. "You're not very subtle, Shinshi-kun," she shook her head.

 _'She's right, you know,'_ Akuma knowingly said, as Itsuka readied herself again, waiting for a clumsy response from his friend.

'Hey, that was the best thing that came to my head. And it's worked so far, right? Along with my ambush plan too,'

 _'I wouldn't know about that,'_ Akuma speculated. _'All Might, I believe, would have some reservations over your actions,'_

'I'm pretty sure he doesn't mind. With his quirk, pretty sure he's breached a _ton_ of walls in his-'

" _Young Shinshi, I don't mean to interrupt your feud, or whatever is going on with your erratic facial expressions,"_ Netsui paused. " _But I must inform you, while absolutely commending your actions, to plan your breaches much more carefully in the future. For now, this is your villain stronghold, so try to minimize the damage output you bring as to not compromise the building your supposed to protect,"_

"Oh, uh... yessir, I look out for that next time," Netsui sheepishly said, while All Might signed out. He could feel Akuma's incoming life lesson in his mind. 'Shut up.'

* * *

"Formidable exercise, villain!" Tokage stated heroically, puffing out her chest in a very heroic fashion as heroic sweat dropped from her brow. She pointed her dangling leg towards him. "But I'm afraid it ends here for you,"

"I can't believe this is happening again..." Kamakiri said incredulously.

"Oh yes it is, my infamous rival!" she pointed an accusatory finger towards the mantis boy. "I will not rest until I see justice being swiftly dealt for your crimes!"

"Are we gonna keep doing this everytime?" Kamakiri painfully realized as he panted heavily, still crouched in a defensive stance in case the loopy girl struck again. "Kage-chan, quit acting high and mighty, I know what you're gonna do now,"

"Oh really?" she cocked a curiously heroic brow. "Pray tell,"

"You've done this a million times before; you're gonna catch me off guard by doing one of your rehearsed hero speeches-"

"-Come on, ya gotta admit I was pretty convincing,"

"- No - into believing you're gonna give me some semblance of mercy. Then in the exact moment I turn my back around - and don't you start whining about this with me - you'll trip me up or something and, in this case, wrap me in capture tape, effectively putting me out of the game," the mantis boy ended his rant by crossing his arms on his chest.

"Pfffha!" the masked hero bellowed out. "As if I would be that predict-"

"-all the while stealing quotes from one of your hero novels."

Tokage's mouth hung open mid sentence before she snapped it shut, refusing to meet his gaze and pouting. "Am not..."

"Mmhmm, sure. So tell me, _hero,_ " a devious, pale brow was cocked. "What've you got cooked up now?"

The masked hero's pupils turned to pinpricks as she made eye contact with her opponent, upper lip trembling anxiously. Sweat dropped from her forehead and onto to her scales, catching the attention of the mantis boy, whose brows brows knitted together. _'_ _Looks like I got her. Now, if I play my cards right, this might as well be-'_

"Thanksfortheassistbye!" Tokage quickly remarked before scampering to the double doors on her side.

"Gh-huh?"

"Heehee, sucker!" Tokage practically skipped across the room as she giggled merrily, not bothering to make sense of the direction she ran in in the darkened room. "Wow, that was easier than I thought! The support course really killed it with these hammerhead shoes, who'da thunk I'd actually put up fight with Garu-kun. Either that or he's slacking off on his physical exercises,"

' _And if that's true, I need to punish that cute lil' green lotus keister, heeheehee~_ ' she thought mischievously, her tongue poking of her devilish grin. ' _Now's not the time for that, Red's counting on me to beat the villains. It's my duty, for I am The Leader!_ ' she proclaimed to herself proudly. Her head whipped around the room to search for any hint of a cardboard bomb replica, but all she could see was the veil of darkness spread throughout. ' _It should be around here somewhere, I'm sure I didn't-_ '

The noise of wood hitting a hard surface brought her out of her train of thought. Her lizard mask muffled a yip as she crouched behind a nearby pilar and clamped her reptilian mouth shut. ' _Oh, I think I get it now, this musta been what they were planning all along. Distracting us with a team altercation so you could trick us with the core's relocation? I'd never take you for someone like that, Garu-kun!_ ' Tokage smiled contently under her mask.

' _Thank god_ _she got the wrong room!_ ' Kamakiri's sudden thought made his eyes widen to saucers and begin to sweat profusely. ' _The core's in the other room over, and neither of us noticed! At least Shinshi isn't here to see this,_ '

"I-It's ov-ver, Tokage," he stuttered, coughing lightly into his bladed fingers to clear the nervousness. "Come out with your hands up... evil-doer." the mantis boy awkwardly stated. It felt so awkward to say that out of the blue. He hoped there would at least be some pointers on how to avoid it.

Kamakiri could hear Tokage sigh a few pillars away from him, so he cautiously inched closer to the sound. "I can't believe my plan actually failed, I coulda sworn I had you fooled, but nope! I was the one who fell for your trap, Garu-kun. Congratz," Tokage said dejectedly.

The mantis boy stopped in his tracks, his eyes darting side to side as sweat dripped from his brow. "Yes, of course, Tokage. Here I thought you knew better than anyone," Kamakiri strained to not let his surprise show. "Heroes must always expect the unexpected, remember?"

"Well, I gotta admit; you had the upper hand this time around,"

"Exactly. Because, as you can tell... I took away the core... during preparations... yes," he cleared his throat. "I did that."

"Yessiree doo," Tokage sighed again, but this time his tone shifted into content. "Good thing I thought of a plan B,"

Green skin turned pale at the revelation as Kamakiri's eyes widened. "Plan what?"

"Garu-kun, did you really think I'd come all the way here without an army?" the corners of her mouth curled to a grin.

"An ar...my? That... doesn't even make any sense, the teams only have tw..." realization hit him like a bullet train, as he backed away mortified from the 'villain's voice. "Shit."

"Well, maybe not just an 'army'-"

"No..."

"I also got-"

"No no no...!"

"A 'leggy'!"

The double doors burst open in cue. Kamakiri whipped around and froze in terror, his eyes couldn't keep of everything he saw, but what was truly horrifying to him was the sea of detached lower limbs. All of them hopping furiously and straight at him.

"Nono _nonononono_ -"

"Fuck!" Netsui cried out as Itsuka's giant palms wrapped around him in a tight handlock, her sizable digits intertwining behind his back like a spider net. He could feel surface leave his feet, and he didn't need to look down to know the martial artist was lifting him off his feet and pushing him against the hole in the wall. Netsui was pretty sure if it weren't for Akuma's intervening power, the scratches and bruises would be endless. And he didn't need to risk exposure with another quirk passively activating.

The capped 'hero' struggled against Itsuka's grip with all the might he could muster up, pushing her hands down to stay still so the human wall wouldn't curb under pressure, digging his boots to the floor, and with trembling knees, he pushed back. The palms blocked out the view of his opponent, yet he still heard her labored grunts.

' _I may have severely underestimated Kendo-chan's strength,_ ' from the sound of his tone, Akuma endeavored to keep the immense power at a balance. ' _Even at this low capacity, that young lady remains at a standstill with us,_ '

'Weren't you the one who kept telling me not to do that?' he smugly thought out. However, he swallowed his own words as little by little, Netsui felt the weight of his dug soles less and less the more the skirmish went on.

 _"Are you caving in already? ... what a pathetic specimen,"_

 _"Only a God's punishment would befit you. So I shall."_

 _"If I didn't highly favor your father, your scorch marks would never have healed,"_

'Oh god, no.. Not now!' all Netsui wanted to do now was to clutch his head to stop the repressed memories, but the skirmish made it impossible to calm down.

 _'Netsui, control yourself! We're losing our grip!'_ Akuma poured in the maximum power he allowed Netsui to remain at a high school student level. _'I can't do more than this, it's all up to you now,'_

'I can't... do it... they're... coming back!'

 _'By the Gods,_ ' by the time reality set in, Akuma noticed that Netsui's feet and cape were dangling further and further away from the floor. ' _Brace for impact!'_

" _NyaaAAARGH!"_ Itsuka cried out as her giant hands flung the deceivingly hefty teen across the room like a rock. The 'heroine' yelped as she fell on her aching foot, throwing off her balance. Despite this, she knew she had to act fast, so she stood up tried to make her way out as fast as possible. _'I don't know why you became weaker all of the sudden, but...'_ she took very strenuous steps to the hole, mindful of the cracks forming on the tiles. _'If it helps, Netsui-kun, I'm sorry,'_

The ground shook as Netsui crashed and tumbled past it, his head spiraling to make heads or tails of his sense of direction until he hit the window wall with a _thud._ He mumbled groggily, clutching his head with one hand, the other pinned under him, as the pain and nausea settled in quickly. The room spun around incessantly, the shapes being only a blur in his vision. His eyes tried to peer at the light blue silhouette getting further away, but the nausea caused him to choke down his vomit.

 _'Are... kay... Netsu... speak t... hey...'_ the dazed teen could barely make out the sound of his concerned friend as his head wobbled, trying to find a balance in his seated position. The ground buckled under the excessive weight of the impact, Netsui's body jolting involuntarily as the crater cracked the more he tried to move.

'Ak...Akuma...' he forced the words out.

 _'What...?'_

'It hurts...'

 _"The pain hurts, I know."_

 _'Net... no...'_

The painfully familiar voice said, forcing him out of his daze. His vision cleared enough to see Itsuka, his rival for the match, limping away from the room past makeshift door, yet spared a glance over her shoulder, stopping in her tracks with a hand to her lips.

 _"But that pain is important."_

 _'Compose... self!'_

 _" _Young Shinshi!_ " _All Might's voice sounded on the Netsui's transceiver. _" _Are you alright? That looked like quite the arduous fall, even for someone like you!__ "

"..." Netsui paused in his daze, a single thought bouncing nonstop on his mind. "Someone... like _me_?"

" _Hmm?_ "

As the cracks grew prominently, Netsui meekly turned his head to look at his rival. The blur cleared and he could accurately depict the expression on her visage, having entirely ignored her limp and her 'hero' duty. He haltingly yet surely stood up, letting in the unknown surge of energy that left Akuma fearful and slipping.

Worry.

Fear.

Compassion.

Confliction.

 _"Let it consume you."_

 _'Netsui... don't! If you... lose control... I will... I'll... **Guh**...' _ the tiles began to tremble, the structure weakening under the amassing and silent awakening of the young teen.

All of these emotions flashed on her face in seconds as she darted between her objective and him, a dangerous cocktail mix turned her into something Netsui never expected from someone like Itsuka, and something part of him was required to take advantage of.

Vulnerable.

 _"Let it evolve you."_

 _' **GRAAAAAH!** ' _

The blood curling roar was only hear inside Netsui, resonating violently throughout the long haired teen's being, causing his ear to bleed from the deep frequency. He paid it no mind. It only made him stronger.

The crater finally broke under pressure, and Itsuka tried to jump into action to save him, ultimately buckling under the worsening bruise. She teared up from the pain as she laid there in one knee, helpless to aid in the situation. _'No, I shouldn't be like this,'_ she reaffirmed herself, standing back up and towards the exit. _'Netsui's strong. He can handle this... I hope. Right now, I have to rendezvous with-'_

Before she could finish her thought, Netsui leaped out of the collapsing floor, causing Itsuka to whip around abruptly, flabbergasted. Her eyes were fixed on the 'villain' in mid air, knees bent as if to take another leap, his beige cape fluttering with the haste, gazing down at her with an expression she couldn't put her finger on. His brows furrowed ever so slightly, and the easy-going glow in his eyes had disappeared.

Why did he look so... angry?

"Ne... Netsui?"

That seemed to tip him over the edge.

The glare intensified tenfold, and Itsuka felt the daggers pierce her skin deeply. He veered his body in her direction and jumped again to the astonishment of the 'heroine'. In the blink of an eye, Netsui was mere inches away from her, still glaring daggers at her, as his hand reached around to touch her face. She managed to jump back to avoid it. _'This speed! I can barely dodge it,'_ she thought to herself, before another revelation came to her as she examined his hand. _'Huh? Where's his capture tape?... and why is his hand glowing red?'_

Her leg raised to boot him far away from her to give her time, but Netsui easily crouched under it like nothing. To Itsuka, it was like she was fighting a blur. His other hand rose to obsessively meet her face once more, and she felt a pang of fear from this. This time she couldn't dodge for the life of her and his hand partly blocked the view of his ferocious face.

Through the finger's crevices, her jade eyes' widened. Netsui's sclera took on a sickly yellow hue, and his black pupils swallowed by the livid crimson iris surrounding it.

" _The Hero Team WIIIIIIIIN!_ "

"Huh?" the announcement snapped Netsui's out of his ominous mood. Withdrawing from his crouching position, he stepped back from his friend, blinking repeatedly as if he wasn't seeing well, firmly gripping his shoulder. Itsuka stood, frozen in shock as her confused friend took a moment, lethargically eyeing the clusterfuck of a room, and the skirmish's collateral damage before returning eye contact with her, his brows knitted together in genuine perplexion.

"What happened?" he turned to her. The glow in his eyes returned, the colors fading back to their white, hazel and black contrast.

No words escaped her throat. Itsuka's mouth remained gaped, lips trembling.

* * *

" _Pffft Hahahaha!"_ Tokage clutched at her stomach as she rolled over in a laughing fit.

"Stop laughing! Aren't you supposed to take this seriously?!" Kamakiri's screamed out in expanding frustation, squirming underneath all of Tokage's appendages holding him and keeping him down. "And quit _kicking me already_!"

"Ooooh, man," Tokage wiped away a tear as her giggling died down. "You shoulda seen the look on your face, you were all like 'Ah! _Please Tokage-chan, don't be so relentless with your quirk. I can't handle all these arms on me. Oh, whatever shall I do? Help me, Shinshi-kun!'_ "

The mantis 'villain' squinted at her. "I do _not_ sound like that," he pouted. "Why would I call him Shinshi-kun, anyway..." he tried to move his arms, but to no avail as the restrains would pull together everytime he'd push away. "Do you have magnets on your arms or something?"

" _Hee hee_ , yes, actually," Tokage teasingly stuck her tongue out.

 **Tokage Setsuna. Quirk: Autotomy - This little trickster can shed her arms and legs off and have complete control over them for seven minutes!**

"It's ten minutes now,"

 **Oh right, sorry. For ten minutes! Congratz, by the way.**

"Thanks!"

Kamakiri raised a scaly brow. "Who are you talking to?"

"Nobody," she said simply, with an innocent, do-no-bad smile.

He gaped at her, bewilderment etched on his entire visage before sighing tiredly. "Do I even want to know?"

"Nope. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a core to touch," with that prideful remark, she strutted out of the room with a bounce in her step. And it wouldn't be so obnoxiously annoying to the mantis boy if her detached hand hadn't courteously opened the door for her.

Kamakiri threw his head back with a heavy sigh. "I can already hear them chew me out," he pivoted his sight to one of her legs. The one that hadn't stopped kicking him. "Why are you like this?" The leg seized its actions as it seemed to turn its knee to face him, two disembodied arms coming from each side and scratching just below its knee.

' _Is this thing... thinking?'_ to confirm his suspicions, it pulled its arms out and... shrugged? It then went back to kicking him with the other members holding him down.

Kamakiri closed his eyes as a breath escaped his nostrils.

The ground around him shook and the sound of collapsing was heard not too far from his current room, peeking his curiosity and fear. A fracture protruded from the double doors, edging closer to the mountain of limbs.

Kamakiri's sight darted from to the fracture to where he knew Shinshi was fighting, his eyes unblinking. "Duly noted; never mess with Shinshi Netsui."

" _The Hero Team WIIIIIIIN!_ "

* * *

Back at the monitor room, the duo teams stood at attention in front of the class and All Might. The Villain Team displayed differing degrees of regret; Kamakiri's sweat dropped like rain, refusing to meet eye contact with anyone, trying to hide his shame, and Netsui rubbed his sore shoulder, staring off into space with a blank expression.

For contrast, the Hero Team held victorious smirks and could barely contain their excitement. At least in Tokage's part. Itsuka's mind was still drawn to Netsui's erratic temper swing. She quickly shook her head and faced her sensei. There was time to think about this later.

"Since this was the very last match, I trust you all to know who stood out the most during the match!" All Might faced the crowd with an eager grin, lifting his arm up. "Anyone want to jump in?!"

Shishida raised a hairy hand. "Yes, I believe it was Tokage-chan who-"

" _Oh yeah_! Tell it like it is, ya _beast_!" Tokage finally let her rambunctious cheer out, pumping her fists in the air. She stopped, seeing the surprised faces of her peers. " _Ahem..._ Proceed."

The beast cocked a brow. " _Oooo_ kay... Anyways, as I was saying, Kendo-san and Tokage-san, all things considered, seemed to equally be in their element when approaching the situation and fending off the Villain Team. Although in my opinion, Tokage-san willingly taking the leadership position right off the bat solidified her as the, as you all would put it, MVP. She kept the order within the team, boosting the morale in regards to fighting opponents that were, admittedly stronger than them. Plus, countering Kamakiri's blades seemed like no small feat either,"

Itsuka coughed into her hand. Tokage pouted at her then sticking out her tongue.

All Might nodded. "Very well said indeed! Now-"

"True, but you have to give props to Kendo-san," Honenuki interjected."Yeah, I get it, her lapse in judgement cost her limited mobility and a physical disadvantage, but still, the simple fact that she persisted through it and _actually_ managed to overpower a Strength Enhancement Quirk user. Not to mention her level headed mindset and improvised tactic after being cornered by Netsui's ambush showed me she stood out the most,"

"Agreed," Yui curtly said.

Tokage, arms crossed against her chest, blew a raspberry to a giggling Itsuka.

"Y-Yes, that is also correct, but can we-"

"Ha!" Monoma guffawed beside her. "You're just saying that because you're her friend," Monoma looked at Yui, who gave an intent, soulless glance, forcing to look away in fear. "I-I-I mean... obviously, Kendo could've handled it so much better. Who even thinks they can stand a chance in a fist fight against someone like Netsui? Even though he's dumb as a brick, he- AAAAHHH!" an enlarged foot stomped his shoes.

"Oops."

"Umm, students?"

Kamakiri let a long, drawn out breath of relief from his core. He wiped some of the sweat on his scaly brow. "Well, they're still ranting and raving about the girls, so we can try to relax for the time being-"

"You're all a bunch of idiots!"

"I spoke too soon..."

The discussion came to a grinding halt as the class' focus shifted to the culprit. "Young Kuroiro, do you... have insight you'd like to share with the rest of us?" All Might hesitantly asked.

Kuroiro _tsk_ ed. "More than all of you, apparently. All this goodie goodie, ass kissing crap was getting on my nerves." He pointed at Tokage. "You."

Tokage was visibly shaken. "M-Me?"

"Don't interrupt me." Kuroiro rubbed his temples. "In what world do you call that 'Leadership'? All I saw was someone playing 'Cops and Robbers' and you decided you wanted to carry the bigger stick, and laugh at everything that happens. You can't have your cake and eat it too, you know? Also, don't think I hadn't noticed how you and the lizard guy were gushing at each other when you first encountered. If you really took it seriously, you'd set aside menial things like that,"

Tokage nodded nervously. "R-Right..."

"Kendo, was it?" he asked the next in line, but waved a dismissive hand. "Nevermind, doesn't matter. You should've known from the get go your karate, or whatever, wouldn't even leave a print on the guy. I mean, really, you gave him leeway to pass you around like a damn rag doll. Sure, you made great strides there in the finale, but I can tell you right now, it will never be as easy as that when you're out there. 'Cause there won't be any big guys out there holding back from punching your head off like this one, I can tell ya that much,"

"What? He wasn't-"

"Oh, spare me the bullshit. We all know that's true,"

Itsuka shook her head, turning to her class, who sheepishly scratched the back of their head. "We thought you knew," All Might said.

Kuroiro inched closer to an angry looking Kamakiri. "Don't look at me like that,"

"Hard not to,"

"It's hard to look at you too, but I still try," Kuroiro said, annoyed. "While we're on the topic of holding back, I was watching you two the most and you both seemed to be the culprits of this. However, I understand this affair completely; blades and hammer-like fists hurt like hell, but is that an excuse to drag yourselves down? Or maybe you thought, with your powers combined, along with knowing how your friend over there worked, was enough to win the match? Is that why you didn't plan ahead?"

The scaly glare only intensified. He didn't have anything to say, nor did he. The silence said plenty.

From afar, Monoma rubbed his chin, interested in the recent development of his usually quiet classmate.

"I thought so," he moved on to Netsui, who seemed entirely unaware of the hard-knock criticism, still clutching his shoulders as if his life depended on it. "Hey, were you even listening? I just got done with your friends over there, you're not chickening out by not looking at me, right?"

Nothing. His frazzled mane covered his face.

"Hello? Anybody there?"

Netsui began shaking

"You coming down with something?"

The long-haired teen's breathing became more audible and fast-paced. Itsuka's worry skyrocketed.

"Oh god damn it," Kuroiro spun around to look at All Might. "What's this guy's name again?"

All Might noted the distress Netsui's was in, and slowly approached him. The grip he held on his shoulder concerned him; if that was another regular person, they'd be crush to bits. "Young Shinshi," the Number One Hero's soft tone came off as foreign to the class. "Are you alright?"

"May I be excused?" Netsui's head rose after a tense moment, revealing the sweat draped over his locks of hair, and the slight hyperventilation ticked the hero's senses. All Might saw his gripped hand lightly twitch every few seconds. _'Is this the overuse effect of his quirk? Now that I think about it, it's sort of similar to Young Midoriya's, except much painless...'_

"... You may." All Might conceded. "Take your time. Go to Recovery Girl if you have to."

With a quick bow, Netsui ran past all of the trainees, mumbling an apology when he bumped into Kamakiri, and out of the observation room. He felt his shoulders pulsing, inflamed, even as he sprinted further until he arrived at the bathroom, slamming it shut behind him. He inspected the stalls to make sure he was completely alone and that no one was looking in.

After careful inspection, he stepped towards the sink and ran the cold tap water, splashing his face over and over again, as often as possible to rid himself of his thoughts. The cold, near icy, liquid dripped from his face onto his hands and the sink, his breaths coming in heaves and coming out sharp. 'It's gonna be okay... It's gonna be okay... your almost home, it's alright,' he replayed the words in his head to keep the mind from wondering.

Though no water was applied, his shoulders stopped burning as his panicked demeanor turned calm. He left the tap water on, as it was the only sound breaking the silence. 'It's better than anything else at this point,'

He raised his head to gaze upon the mirror, and seeing himself staring back with a tired and droopy mug. Except the mirror image held a heterochromatic vision; its left eye had a yellow sclera, florid vermilion iris and no pupil.

"Akuma..." he asked the mirror image, in a tone desperate for an answer. "What is wrong with me?"

Akuma sighed internally, and the mirror image imitated the action as it spoke. _'You and I hold the same inquiries,'_

* * *

 **A/N: This has been a long time coming, hasn't it? Don't even know when the last update was.**

 **Regardless, I would like to apologize for anyone who's been ticked off about the unexpected and untold hiatus. Frankly, not even I know it would be this long, but here I am.**

 **Before you ask, no. I wasn't away because of school or college or education in general, I already finish HS and I don't plan on ever going to college. I _am_ getting my driver's license but it just takes away 1-2 hours of my day.**

 **The main reason why I've been away for so long was because of... very personal issues to deal with me and my family that I am not comfortable talking about on the internet like this. It out a giant dent on my daily life, affecting my psyche and my schedule. My last driving lesson was in the very start of February, and since I flunked my, uh, how would your countries put it...**

 **I flunked my first driving exam, let's say. Which, combined with the issues, drove me to my limits, broke the shell I was in for so long, and I had to take a moment cool down. Took a while before I could think normally with the pills, but I'm doing fine now, and hopefully I'll still be able to provide for you and me a crap ton of writing projects and ideas in my future.**

 **This may be vague, and I fully intend to keep it like that. Don't want to display my full history and get myself into more trouble.**

 **For now, I leave you this chapter which I actually had to edit the plot around 6 times to get to someplace I wanted. And I believe with the title change, there should also be some plot changes as well, to fit the bill. And since the drama is picking up quite a bit, it should be a great motivator for me to continue on.**

 **I also might be projecting a bit on my characters... Oh well, makes for a good narrative.**

 **Until next time,**

 **-CTC**

 **P.S: I really want a profile design of those initials. That'd be so cool. If anyone wants to, feel free.**


	9. Amends and Crossroads

**A/N: Reviews and feedback are more than welcome!**

* * *

The rest of the classes had gone by as expected of a high school; aside from the training protocol, where the use of quirk was a requirement, the regular lessons delved more into the general knowledge of the students. Although after such a headstrong start with the Number 1 Hero, the remainder of the day was as humdrum as ever. The immense praising the final quartet of "embryos" - as All Might referred to them - was the only break for the menial education. Especially the female duo.

It was in the dull clutter that Netsui found the odd sensations much more apparent. For example, the young student, despite always being a tad bit slow on the uptake, found it harder to concentrate on the matter at hand. The lectures bounced around on his mind without reaching an end, the main focus of his thoughts drawn to the Battle Training, and the lapse in memories of certain events. Whatever it was, it had someone behind him burn a hole in the back of his head, and every time he'd glance around, everyone was too entranced by Blood King-sensei to notice.

If he was being frank, it didn't help at all the feeling hadn't gone away the next day, as he paced through the school's hallways, his shoulders sore from being rubbed for so long. The sun shone brightly, which forced him to not aggravate the pain.

'Damn, will this thing just go away?' he exhaled through his nostrils at the nagging throbs. 'Did I do something yesterday to get this going at it? Maybe I wrapped the bandages too tight...'

 _'It most definitely isn't the latter. Normal bodily damages... don't drive me to feel this queasy-'_ Akuma ended his statement with a dry heave, a white noise echoeing inside the frazzled haired teen, like a cheap movie's version of the Wilhelm scream.

'That... sounded bad,'

 _'I believe I performed the quirk equivalent of regurgitation,'_

'Wow. And I thought I had it bad,'

 _'It's not as bad as it sounds. Fortunately, nothing comes out, since I don't have a physical form. Or a stomach,'_ the mental entity paused, gulping down a breath. _'Unfortunately, I still have more 'nothing' left in my system- HURGH!'_

"Unbelievable..." a pompous voice spoke out near Netsui. He stared off to the side of the hall to see Monoma gawking out the massive window, shaking his head disapprovingly.

'Hey, Akuma, do yo-'

 _' **-HAAAAAAAA-** '_

'...I'll leave you be then.'

Tuning out Akuma's sick wailing to the best of his ability, he stood beside his classmate. "Oi, Monoma, what's up?" Netsui asked, as carefree as he could manage. The throbbing had diluted, so maybe keeping the mind busy was helping.

Without turning his head to acknowledge his presence, Monoma pointed a finger to the outside. "Do you see what I'm seeing, Shinshi?" Monoma asked indignatly.

"Um..." Gazing out, Netsui's eyes fell on what he thought was Monoma's subject of offense. "The journalists?"

"Not them, but the people they are interviewing. What do they look like to you?"

"... Students." he simply replied.

"More specifically, what _kind_ of students?"

His scrunched the more he pondered, until he snapped his fingers at an answer. "Oh! I get it, I get it," a smile crept up to his lips. "They're U.A students. So maybe that's why the media is so interested in them, right? 'Cause of the school's prestige?"

Monoma sharply turned to gape at Netsui, expression stunted in shock. "I'm not sure if you're being a wiseass,"

A black brow raised in curiosity. "Wait, why're you calling me a wiseass?"

The pompous boy opened his mouth to answer honestly, but refrained with a cough. "Nevermind. Anyway, no, that's not what I meant," he pointed to the green haired boy shyly walking away from the gate. "Those students are from Class 1-A, and they are, in fact, as you will see in the future, rivals of ours on our journey of heroism," he finished, pressing his accusative finger further into the glass, muttering. "My goodness, one of them is even flexing in front of the cameras! So shameless!"

"They are?!" Netsui gasped, but paused for a moment in thought. "Wait, they are?"

"Yes" Monoma stepped away from the window and addressed his classmate face to face. "Don't you know? Every year, the students of Class 1-A and Class 1-B are automatically thrown into a heated, three year long battle to see who among the two can emerge the greatest. Of course, I think that such a competition is simply ridiculous, but then again, I'm not one to deny tradition,"

"Are you sure about that?" Netsui tilted his head, tapping his chin. "'Cause that's news to me. And we haven't heard a peep about the other class. Where did you get this anyway?"

"Hmm, someone like you could never understand the nuances of the hero courses' rivalry,"

"Hey, I take offense to that!"

 _'Hear Hea- **HAAAAAAAAA-** '_

"-a-and I do have an idea about them. _Errr_..." fingers ruffled black locks in an attempt to recall 'nuances' as Monoma smirked patiently, arms crossed on his chest. "I think... Sensei said the name 'Aizawa' and 'Nightwalker', before he made us do the trials. Is that a name from 1-A?"

Monoma blinked, before letting out a single, light chuckle. "I'm surprised you caught on to that. Congratulations,"

"Uh... thanks?" Netsui didn't know how to take the praise. It was unlike anything his other classmates would say, but so like Monoma.

'Monoma-kun's really awful at complimenting people, isn't he?'

 _'Talking to this boy is sickening me more and more, please leave this instant!'_

'Yeah, it's best if I end this talk right here,'

 _'Oh thank the Gods!_

"Well, if you're done doing... whatever it was you were doing," Netsui changed the topic, turning away the from Monoma. "We should be heading to class right now. I don't think Blood King-sensei would appreciate tardiness this early in the year."

Monoma sighed, almost as if focusing back on his education was unwarranted. "I guess you're right, again. After all, if we're to one-up those Class 1-A showoffs we need to start being punctual, and build up from there,"

"... Guess so,"

Netsui tried not to meet eye contact, or add any comments to Monoma's rants as they reached 1-B and sat down on opposite sides of the room. Akuma felt relieved for his sanity, while Netsui greeted the people nearest to him. Itsuka seemed more tense than usual, staring at him with uncertainty, but he had to quickly dismiss it as Blood King entered the class, who skimmed through the evaluation and miscellaneous papers piled on his desk.

Blood King pulled out a small pair of glasses and plopped them on his nose, setting the papers neatly on his side. "I'd like to start by saying, good work on your Battle Training yesterday, I take it you enjoyed your time with All Might?" with a classroom wide approval he continued. "Fantastic. Because I've seen your grades and evaluations on all of your accounts and..." he removed his glasses. "Frankly speaking, I'm disappointed,"

The whole class' heart sank with the news, a good majority gazing down at their individual desks in shame. Netsui furrowed his brows anxiously. He hadn't been in time to hear his full evaluation when he came back from the restroom before All Might ran off hastily.

 _"While your ambush was worthy of merit, you must also consider the infrastructure of your surroundings. It's best to carefully plan ahead on this delicate circumstances to not compromise the status of your operations. Keep that in mind next time,"_

'I should've known,' Netsui berated inwardly as a comforting warmth spread on his scalp.

"I was expecting all of you to excel in at least one area, one that coincided with your quirks and their limitations. However, from the looks of things," Blood King's muscled hand flipped through the grades effortlessly. "Some of you didn't even play to your strengths," his crimson eyes shot to Nirengeki, who fidgeted nervously and sank deeper into his seat. "I won't fret too long over this since I'm sure All Might's words have more impact than mine, though there are a few points I'd like to add,"

"Kamakiri,"

The mantis boy jolted, meeting his sensei's vision. "Yes, Blood King-sensei,"

"Please, none of you need to be formal with me. Kan-sensei is just fine," he explained briefly, and with a nod from Kamakiri, Kan continued. "Anyways, I appreciate the fact you can keep your very close relationship with Togake under wraps in order to bypass the laws of the school," at this information, the class simultaneously whipped to Kamakiri, who blushed a deep crimson, eyes like saucers and blobs of sweat dripping from his forehead. "However, I must inform you in the case you or her take things too far, the faculty will have to take disciplinary charges and punish you accordingly,"

"Nothing else to say, I'm simply telling you to be more careful with that since I heard from Tokage you were the more affectionate one. Otherwise, your grades are certainly positive, keep at it,"

The deep blush manifested throughout his face, tinging his blades as shrunk on his seat. Everyone had forgoed their previous shame and were gazing at Kamakiri with vivid interest. "Th...Thank you... Kan-sensei..." he muttered shyly. His sixth sense went off, alerting him of when Tokage was smirking wildly.

Kan then called out the next student. "And Netsui, coincidentally enough,"

The boy in question raised his head. "Hmm?"

"Are you alright? I heard you were feeling pained when you got to the observation room. Did you have Recovery Girl check on you?"

Netsui shook his head frantically. "Oh no no no, I didn't need to. It was just, you know... quirk drawback," he lied, emphasizing his point with a flexed bicep. "Usually happens when I start overexerting, my arms get sore for a little while. Nothing serious, all I needed was to cool off,"

Kan's grey brows knitted together. "Okay then, I'll take your word for it. Remember this as a lesson to improve upon your resistance in the near future, because there will be many times in real life battles where you can't take a break, alright?"

Nodding in response, Netsui sighed inwardly in relief, though he felt a pang of guilt in his core. 'God damn it, I hate lying,'

"That's all I have to say. Now, onto more pressing matter,"

Tension crawled up everyone's spine at the prospect.

"And by that I mean regular high school routine," Kan stood up from his desk. "You'll be picking a Classroom President,"

Like a synchronized orchestra, Class 1-B erected upright from their individual seats, hands reaching to the skies.

"Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! Pick me!"

"No way, I'm _way_ more suited as a Leader!"

"WE NEED A REAL LEADER! LEMME HAVE IT"

"I waaant to be President-sensei!"

Juzo glanced to his side, seeing Kuroiro sitting, his hands resting lazily on his pockets. "Aren't you gonna participate?"

"Nah, I'm good," the black quirk user leaned his head back, closing his eyes. "Wake me up when this is over,"

Juzo hesitated to respond. "Sure..."

Netsui, following the crowd and imitating their cheers, took a moment to look around at his classmates amidst the commotion. 'Man, this school is having some really weird effects on us,'

 _'Would you not like to be the Class President as well? Imagine the benefits,'_

'Not really, no, I don't think I'm cut out for it,' Netsui sat back down and merely watched his class' charades. 'Besides, there are so many better candidates,'

 _'That sounds like a reproach, but you do make a good point,'_

Monoma's sycophantic chuckles broke through the loud demands, forcing their attention on him. "Well, I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news-"

 _'Oh dear, this should be excruciatingly insightful,'_

"-But I highly doubt you all have the proper requirements to be in such a position of power," the looks the class gave him were thoroughly ignored as he stood up independently from others.

"What's the big idea, Monoma?! Why do you get to call the shots?" Tetsu protested.

"I'm not. I'm purely stating the facts. And the facts are, in a way, that the battle training gave us - or, at least the one's who actually paid attention - great insight into each of our characters if a crisis situation. Who is able to carry heavy responsibilities, 'leading the pack' as it were, and maintain the trust of our fellow colleagues. Of course we wouldn't want a complete imbecile in said position if they can't dictate what's best for everyone involved,"

"That is what this activity is about right, Kan-sensei?" Monoma then turned to his teacher, the trademark cocky smirk plastered on his lips growing with the judgement. "In order to nominate the best student for the job, one needs to look back on previous events and determine the next course of action, much like in the battlefield, perhaps?"

Kan nodded. "Those are aspects to keep in mind, yes, so I have faith in your decision on who'll be in charge. You can either nominate the President and Vice President now or talk among yourselves at lunch time,"

"Fantastic!" He whipped around once more, addressing his classmates. "If it's all the same to you all, I would like to propose to nominate my-"

"What about about Kendo-san for Class President?" Ibara spoke up in a soft tone. This got the whole room to contemplate over her words. "She seems the most qualified. No offense to anyone..." she mumbled the final bit.

"Y-Yes, she is a worthy candi-"

"Hey, you know what, that doesn't sound half bad," Awase interrupted. "We wouldn't stop gushing about her during training, so why not?"

"Oi, I was there too, y'know!" Tokage exasperated.

"Yeah, but it didn't really _feel_ like you there, see what I'm sayin'?" Awase attempted to explain. "Like... I totally saw you, yet at the same time, you weren't really there,"

"I...!" she sat down, crossing her arms and pouting. "I understand completely. So I guess I vote for Kendo-chan too!"

"Same here!" Tetsutetsu nearly broke his desk with his stone fist. "Anyone who can completely humiliate me in comparison has got my respect! Go Kendo!"

A slight blush appeared on Itsuka's cheeks. "C'mon, you guys don't need to say all that,"

Netsui decided it was his time to chime in, leaning back on his seat to gaze at her. "It's true though. As someone who got his ass handed to him by you, you deserve all that and more,"

"He's right." Yui came in from her side, giving Itsuka a double thumbs up. "Class President Itsuka-san."

"Exactly. That has a nice ring to it, could see it plastered all over the school too," multi-quirked hands stretched outward. "1-B President Kendo Itsuka! Cool, cunning, and kickass!"

Itsuka hesitated to answer. "Doubt they'd put in that much effort but..." she inhaled sharply. "Fine. I'll do it. For you guys," Yui and Netsui's grin widened. In the latter's case, he inwardly wiped the sweat off his brow.

The class fell into another mass chattering revolving around the orange haired girl, which brought a bashful grin to curl on her lips. Netsui let out a breath, her demeanor bringing peace to his own jumbled up mind. 'She isn't tense around me anymore, so that's good. Gotta ask her what was up with her sometime,' he thought blissfully.

He stared off to the side, noticing a defeated looking Monoma, unresponsive to the events unfolding around him. 'What's wrong with him now?'

 _'Possibly superficial, I presume,'_

Kan stroked his chin. "Okay, everyone pay attention now," the class complied, sitting down and focusing intently on their teacher. "Everyone in favor of making Kendo Class President say aye!"

"Aye!" the majority of the class cheered loudly, with the exception of a sleeping Kuroiro.

"All against say nay!"

"Nay..." Monoma muttered, barely above a whisper.

"Perfect, motion carried. Now all we need is to nominate the Vice President," it was then that the bell rang, signaling the lunch period. "Hmm, we'll have to postpone that. Kendo, you wouldn't mind choosing the Vice President in the meanwhile, as well as the rest of the student council members, would you?"

"No problem, sir,"

"No formalities!"

* * *

Netsui, Ibara and Tetsu sat down together in the lunch hall, the boys sitting opposite to one another and the girl besides the strength enhancement quirk user, not because of any ill intent towards Tetsutetsu, but because the repugnant stench of cooked pork liver and beans was too much for her to bear.

"Dude, how can you eat that so easily?!" Netsui asked, befuddled as his friend scarfed down the organ by the mouthful, while Ibara sat quietly, enjoying her miso soup.

Tetsu swallowed a noticable lump of pork in his throat before responding. "When you have years of experience chowing down all sorts o' iron diets like me, things like these, no sweat,"

"Iron diet?" Ibara inquired. "Is that related to your quirk?"

"Yep. He more iron I eat, the stronger and longer I can hold my steel form. It ain't pretty, but no one said it would be," the jagged bite he took of the beans threatened to break the spoon. Ibara jolted a little in her seat, chipping away at a piece of bread.

"Geez. Good to know you're taking this hero business seriously," Netsui took a bite of his own lunch; homemade garlic takoyaki.

"Oh yeah, absolutely! I ain't here to screw around or nothin', and I'll beat the snot outta anyone who says otherwise!" he finished his speech by whipped around madly, searching for any word in protest, scaring Ibara in the process as she yelped.

"Alright, Tetsu man, calm down," he said waving a hand to bring the hotheaded boy back to the conversation, the other hand rubbing Ibara's arm in comfort. "No one's trying to mess with you. Nobody here even knows who you are,"

 _'Head his actions, my friend. Ancient warriors gained a portion of their strength through animal intestines, and it's firmly believed many warriors stole meals from others to surpass them. Perhaps you could follow his example,'_

'...I'd rather not,'

Their friendly and competitive banter was interrupted as a rather large presence made itself known beside the table. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything," Kamakiri cautiously overlooked the trio, his hands holding a tray of bento. The mantis boy faced Tetsutetsu. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

The group gave Kamakiri a look of puzzling gape. "Depends," Tetsu challenged Kamakiri with an unwavering scrutiny, a fork of sliced liver pointed towards him. "Can ya stomach _this_?!"

Kamakiri gazed between the piece of organ and the steel boy with a blank visage. "... I guess."

Tetsu retracted his hand, shoving the liver in his mouth. "All yours."

Muttering a quick 'thanks', the taller boy took a seat beside his classmate, glimpsing briefly at Netsui before staring at his bento, taking a deep breath. Despite having known Kamakiri for the most time, Netsui could only wonder and worry on what was eating him up within.

Ibara was the first to speak up. "Are you feeling well, Kamakiri? You look kind of pale,"

"Yeah, I woulda thought you'd sit with you know who," Tetsu commented off-handedly.

Kamakiri couldn't stop the blush creeping up on his cheeks. "No, no, it's alright. There's just... something else I need to do," he closed his eyes for a moment, and opening them again to stare at Netsui as his expression dropped. "If I may, Shinshi?"

"Hmm?" Netsui was taken aback, slight panic building up inside him. "Did I do something wrong?"

"The opposite, actually," Kamakiri added. At Netsui's nod, he continued. "More importantly, it's about the way I treated you during All Might's training," he looked down at his bento, sorrow filling his expression. "At the time, I was very irritated over the outcome of the team lottery, and I inevitably took out my frustrations on you. I was immature, stubborn, childish and uncooperative with you,"

"Hey man, it's okay, you-"

"No, it's not okay!" Kamakiri interrupted Netsui's dismissal, startling the trio. "I treated you like you were below me, underestimating your capabilities, and downright rejecting your say in on our plans as 'idiotic'! I insulted you, called you unflattering names just because I was angry at something that didn't involve you and..." he sighed, taking a moment to catch his breath. "I'm... sorry. For thinking of you as a loser, and not taking you seriously as a human being. That's what I came here for, to apologize. You can hate me all you want, I just wanted you to know... I'm sorry."

Kamakiri didn't meet Netsui's long gaze. The frazzled teen resorted to stare of his tuft of hair, his shame reverberating in his posture. To him, the tall boy never looked so small. The others must've thought the same as they gazed at him at corners of their eyes like deers in the headlights, stopping them in their tracks and waiting for his response.

The sounds of the nearby chatter blocked the silence between the four of them. Netsui's initial thought to simply accept his apologize and continue on with lunch was foiled as a few choice words echoed endlessly in his mind. ' _A human being..._ ' the expression repeated itself, for what reason, Netsui found it impossible to pinpoint, and Akuma remained silent in his own speculation. Although, that wasn't crucial for now, he'd have time to think about it later.

So, Netsui did the best thing to calm him down, and relieve the tension around him.

A multi-quirked hand reached out and touched the green mohawk, ruffling Kamakiri's unusually soft hair, causing him to look up at a smiling Netsui. Ibara gasped in awe at the sudden motion, while Tetsu gaped at Netsui as if he were a madman, though in Akuma's opinion, it wasn't far from the truth.

"Don't worry about that, dude. Let's call it water under the bridge," Netsui simply said, gazing warmly at his downtrodden classmate. "I understand why you'd think that - everyone out here is giving it their all, and you wanted to do your part. Hell, you were more careful about it than I ever was, so don't be too hard on yourself,"

Kamakiri sniffled, containing the tears threatening to roll down his features. "You're not angry at me?"

"Pffft! Nah! It'll take a _lot more_ than that to make me angry," Netsui's smile brightened, removing his hand from the mantis boy's head and making a fist in front of him. "No hard feelings?"

It was enough to lift the weight off of his shoulders. "No hard feelings." Togaru said, imitated his actions and bumping fists with his new friend. And to make sure the weight stayed off off, Tetsu vehemently patted the mantis boy's back in congratulations.

'Well, that's one problem solved,'

 _'Nicely handled, Netsui-kun,'_ Akuma grinned proudly, reminiscing another memory they shared. One which held drastically different, and worst consequences. _'You've grown,'_

Netsui shook off that lucid thought, cringing. 'Please don't remind me-'

 _ **VREEEEEEEE**_

An impromptu, high pitched noise resonated throughout the lunch hall, petrifying the students.

"Wha' 'e heww?!" Tetsutetsu asked out loud in a mouthful. The deafening alarm shook the group into standing up and ogle at the source.

" _Security level 3 has been_ broken." the voice on the speakers blurted out mechanically. " _All students, please evacuate in an orderly fashion,_ "

In an instant, the student faculty had all but lost their composure. Their freightened wailing replaced the alarm system as they rushed to leave the building. Like a ravenous stampede, the students paid little mind to where they ran into or who they, as Netsui was quick to notice through the chaos. To him, this hero school turned to an enclosure breakout in just a few seconds.

Following the crowd's path, the multi quirk user made certain everyone else was focused on fleeing before his pupils dyed a greyish white hue, secretly activating his **T** **ransparency** quirk. Through heightened vision, he witnessed the crowd clamoring the single staircase in the hall, comfirming his suspicions. The emergency exit in the corridor barely fit the mountain of students crashing through it.

"Level 3?" Togaru asked amidst the commotion, staring at the fleeting crowd barreling towards the exit. "I don't know what that means, but it sounds serious!" he hastily spun around to his classmates, catching their attention. "Come on, we got to head for the emergency exit! Hopefully we'll find Tokage too..."

"Wait! Don't!" Netsui attempted to stop them just as quickly, but they were already sprinting towards the exit, entering the raging mess. 'Shit! They're gonna get trampeled on, what am I gonna do?'

Akuma pondered the possibilties, stroking his 'chin'. _'There is not much you can do, unfortunately, without being too revealing. Simply stating on the route of the chaos would garner unwarranted_ attention,' Akuma scrutinized the people passing by them. _'That begs the question, however; where are the teachers?' And who would infiltrate a hero school in broad daylight? Or, should I say, who_ could _do it?'_

Ideas ran by Netsui's head, desperate for any semblance of a cause for disruption to the panic ensuing. Each passing thought was shot down as it involved using a hidden quirk and exposing his real identity, or finding the source of the alarm and intercept the infiltrator, though he didn't know the way around the school too well. Ultimately, he clutched his head between his hand, frustrated by coincidence. 'Of all the damn alerts on this school, why did it have to be an infiltration while I'm here?'

 _'The Gods have almost never worked in our favor, it appears,'_

Netsui began pacing behind the crowd. 'Fine, I'll follow the orders, but I'm saving anyone who's down!'

 _'You won't hear a word of protest from me,'_ Akuma 'nodded'. _'Try not to get downed yourself,'_

'Not a chance!' the newly determined Netsui grinned from ear to ear.

* * *

The girl in the creased, one-size-too-big U.A uniform peered around the corner of the corridor, walking casually along the hall with her head hung low, tufts of dirty blonde hair blocking any unwanted sight of her facial features, yet, like curtains, leaving enough space for light to shine past, and let her green eyes guide her. There weren't many other students _plaguing_ the hallways, thankfully, so she could do what she planned without any problem.

 _'This school's incompetence annoys me... can't believe I actually went through with the entrance exam,'_ the girl spat venomously, as her lonesome footsteps pattered the empty, mute space. _'Absolutely no hallways monitors, how irresponsible... but of course, what am I to expect from a bunch of children learning from heroes, who let someone like me in with no problem?'_

The student ID card had served its purposes quite well, if she had to say so. The barrier separating the barrage of reporters and the school proved to be a brick wall in the presence of the media, but to her it was more like a pebble in the road; a swipe of her card and she cast off the barrier out of her way. Though she could do without the everlasting inquiry from the journalists. She had to hold back so much from cutting their heads clean off and spewing their blood onto the U.A. walls.

The thought put a demented grin on her lips.

Shaking her head resentfully at her thoughts, she pulled out the top-down graph she briskly stole from the one of the student bodies, displaying the paths around the faculty, along with the school's schedule. According to its directions, she was nearing the Principal's office, which contained the most valuable information to her. _'If that rat of a principal is out, then this shouldn't take long. These lunch breaks_ are-'

The shaky rumbling of her stomach interrupted her train of thought, causing her to grasp her thin figure and lose balance. She nearly fell as her feet trembled suddenly under her light weight, fortunately the wall was there to keep her from hitting the floor ungracefully _like a fucking bum_. The girl groaned out her frustrations. " _Shut the fuck up_!" she muttered in between silent breaths. " _Are you trying to get us caught_?"

 _ **VREEEEEEEEEE**_

" _God damn it_..." she spun around madly as the alarm screeched, warning the faculty about a level 3 breach in security.

" _I thought I was being sneaky, who the_..." she didn't have any time to question herself as the footsteps came closer to her way. She grunted bitterly, hastily getting inside the Principal's office and closing the door tightly behind her. For perceptive she was, she was unable to guess what a level 3 breach meant, though she knew deduced it was enough to warrant the mass panic of _a bunch of self righteous bastards_.

 _'This school's more cutthroat than I thought with the security,'_ She let out a breath as the sound of stomping footsteps, people screaming and alarms blaring filled the faculty. She hit her head on the door, but careful not to be too loud. _'Stupid stupid stupid! I'm supposed to be better than this how the **fuck did I** \- no...no... this is not the time for this. I have to be quick now, I can't be seen here-'_

" _Kurogiri_..." a raspy, yet young voice sounded in the middle of the office. Her blonde brow twitched as she raised her head to look at _the_ _son of a bitch_. A skinny, pale looking stranger stood there, draped in all black attire, and red sneakers, holding papers between his index and thumb. A stiff hand covered his features. Still, she could see him staring at her with murder in his eyes. "Some child is here... A new challenger approaches..."

"Oh dear, I certainly wasn't expecting this," a small black and purple fog materialized beside the skinny man.

The girl took a cautious, stern step towards him. "Who the fuck are you, and what are you doing here?" she glared daggers at him. Callous fingers reached to his skinny neck as he feverishly scratched the skin off until the marks were more than obvious to any onlooker. Her eyes were unmoving, never leaving the skinny man and the fog out of her sight.

"Nothing that you need to know, kid," he met her eyes with a wrinkled glare of his own, presenting an open hand in her direction. "I have to kill her now, Kurogiri..."

Her blood boiled instantaneously, wind enveloping her right leg. " _Like hell you are!_ " she furiously charged at the two entities, neglecting her previous infiltration and preparing to slash them down as the skinny man's hand reached out to her face. However, neither attack connected as a swarm of black and purple swallowed her winded leg and the skinny man's hand, the former's confused anger becoming more apparent as she jumped back from the duo.

"It didn't hit?!" she asked to no one in particular, dumbstruck. How did she hit nothing? _The bastard_ was right there!

"Kurogiri... what did I tell you about interrupting my kills...?" the skinny man half asked, half warned the fog entity.

"I don't think that will be needed, Shigaraki," the fog distended into the skinny man's size, spiraling in place. Glowing yellow smoke stared at her, condescendingly. "This child doesn't seem to belong here,"

Shigaraki gave the girl a look - a look she found quite insulting and patronizing - before nodding in acknowledgement. "Yes... Yes... I understand." he stepped into the fog, and her eyes widened as his foot vanished into thin air, then his torso, pointing a finger at the girl. " _You... You're not a hero..._ "

Her glare didn't diminish since the start. "Never claimed to be one,"

As the makeshift portal consumed his being, the skinny man chuckled dryly. "I like you... I hope I see you again someday." and like that, the duo disappeared without a trace, leaving the girl alone in the Principal's office.

"The feeling's not mutual," he walked up to the desk to continue with her plan, the screaming, screeching, and _annoying_ shrill still ensuing. " _Weirdo._ "


	10. Under The Radar

**A/N: Review and feedback are a drug to me, please gimme gimme!**

* * *

 _The bloodied, tattered man found no more energy in him to fight back anymore. He desperately limped away from the other figure in the room, his wet, barren and red feet treading and dragging along the cold and humid ground. The blackened offered no escape for the frightened soul as he trekked blindly in the semi-darkness, hoping, begging, for an escape, or a tool, anything to break away from this nightmare world._

 _He barely recalled how he suddenly appeared in a place like this. Dazed, confused and fully nude, finding it useless to call out to anyone, then realizing he was trapped with another individual. A more deranged one. A monster, ignoring his pleads and pummeling him without a second thought, heaving him all over the room, to the point where the entire room that was flat became paved with pits and cracks._

 _He whined pathetically, helplessly distancing himself from the entity that drove him to his current demise, silently praying to whatever God was listening to show him mercy. However, God wasn't there, and the dimly lit didn't fair him any wishes as his soaking foot slipped on a patch of a liquid substance he was too afraid to deduce over, plunging the man deeper into the darker part of the room, wherein his bruised cheeks collided at a wall, chafing his flesh across the course, hardened rocks._

 _He wailed in agony, gargling sundry bodily fluids in his jaw, as his body gave up on him and he fell, meekly grasping at his festering wound, crimson liquid coating the side of his destroyed face and hand. The warm tears trailed down his cheeks, inflaming the wound more, yet cleansing some of the tiny pebbles from it._

 _The man's badly beaten, barely breathing carcass laid sprawled against the wall, the pain and burning aggravated the more he screamed at the top of his lungs, yet he continuing to do so was the only strength he managed to find. His hisses sounded inhumane. Like a poor soul tormented for eternity in hell. In unfathomable agony. Tortured._

 _Broken._

 _A stomp resounded near him, and it brought him out of his pained stupor. His large eyes gaped open, and his eyes could only recognize what the patterns strings of light were allowed to show him. The figure, smaller than the fully grown adult, paced towards him. Fear crept up his spine with every step of the mysterious villain. The sheets lighted on the figure, illuminating the person torturing the man. He raised his blurring vision in a feeble attempt to see._

 _A young boy, no older than six years, stepped slowly towards the man, looming over him with a dispassionate gaze, the hazel pupils detached from any regular emotion. Wearing only wrinkled jeans and a pair of socks, caked in blood and pebbles, the young boy's upper body was devoid of cover, displaying to the frightened man his unnaturally skinny torso, and short, black hair dampened atop his head._

 _The young man stopped a few inches from his victim, his dull pupils stuck to the shaking man's own curtailed green eyes. The boy's hand, permanently fixed in a claw countenance, twitched as he seemed to wait patiently. The man could only stare agape at his captor out of his fear._

 _On the corner of the area, on the top layer, static buzzed into life, causing the man to jolt in alarm and the boy to turn to the source._

 _"My son," a male voice spoke out softly, but the broad tenor revealed more than insidious thoughts to his head. "I think our little subject is ready for the extraction. Take his quirk. Claim it as your own,"_

 _The battered man's heart sank, staring aghast at the young boy, who glared back, holding up a clawed hand to his face. A crimson vortex, same hue as the blood spewing out of him, glowed malignantly off his palm inched closer and closer, as the man could only look on in horror at the void of his hand, sobbing quietly and attempting to squirm away from his grasp to no avail._

 _"Daiyaji..." the young boy called out to the man, his inflection devoid of sympathy. "Your power, is mine."_

 _The boy's fingers firmly clasped his head, and he felt the life being sucked out of him._

 _"NOOOOOO-"_

"-GAH!" Netsui startled up with a gasp in a cold sweat, folding the covers off him. His frantic dream replayed behind his eyelids as he blinked into reality, his eyes as wide as saucers, taking in the safer surroundings of his room. Even through the darkened room, everything stayed exactly where it was since last time he saw them. The bedroom door lightly ajar out of habit, the U.A. acceptance letter resting on the desk on the corner, and the drapes blocking the intense morning sunlight.

Stopping for a moment to simply calm his erratic breathing and collect his bearings, he brought a gentle hand to his face, rubbing away the sleep and troubling visions. He was met with digits soaked in sweat, the odd sensation making him pull away and examine his slightly trembling hand, verifying the wet feeling of his palm, and then the place it rested on when he suddenly stood up. The contrasting shades of white and grey-ish white gave him a clear idea of the nighttime happenings. 'That nightmare was so intense, I must've been sweating for a while. My bed is completely damp... and it smells too,'

 _Knock Knock_

The sound on his bedroom door screeching slightly agape came, bringing his head up to look at the only person who could've been behind the door.

"Netsui, y'alright in there?" his dad's rugged, yet delicate voice came from the other side. "I heard noises. Didja have those nightmares again?"

Netsui sighed. His father knew him so well, despite the fact that, most of the time, he was out there in the city, rescuing, fighting criminals, and being the bread winning parent. "Yeah, I... I did. I'm fine now,"

Silence filled the room again, and Netsui could practically sense his dad's nagging, paternal uneasiness. "Do ya want me to get yer pills for ya?"

"Don't worry, dad. I can get them on my own," is what he wanted to say, dismissively so he wouldn't put his burdens on him. But as soon as he opened his mouth to utter the words, nothing came out. His bedridden visage fell, remembering without warning of an important bit of information.

"...If it's not too much trouble," Netsui murmured, rubbing his arm sheepishly.

He didn't need to lie to his dad. Not as much.

"Ya know that's never the case, kiddo," his dad stated confidently, then running off to fetch the medication.

Having had enough time to return to the real world - mostly thanks to his father's empathy -, Netsui sat down on the side of the bed, running a hand threw his disheveled bed hair, and drowsily gaze at his digital clock. _07:05_ it read, meaning he still had quite some time until school. His body grew stiff, the sweat dried into an uncomfortable blanket, and if he didn't hurry, he'd be late to catch the train.

Inside of his mind, however, a certain mental entity finally constructed the courage to speak during the peace. _'Netsui-kun... I'm... so deeply sorry, I-I worked feverishly to maintain-'_

"Akuma, stop. You don't need to tell me anything," he rubbed his face absentmindedly. "It's not your fault, anyway. Now come on, I gotta get ready for school. I know Kan-sensei is gonna have us compensate for him leaving in the middle of class,"

* * *

"SCHOOL'S _CANCELLED_?!" the frazzled teenager became even more frazzled in disbelief. The gate was securely closed to the student faculty, with an automatic robotic statement televising to the students who swiped their U.A. identification cards. All this time, after going through his usual hour and a half long commute, the young boy thought he was late for class. "Why didn't anyone tell me?!"

" _MAYBE_ _YOU HAVE REALLY BAD FRIENDS_." the robot system stated flatly.

Netsui's eyes burrowed into the gate in a glare. "Shut up! You don't know who my friends are,"

" _KID, I'M A SECURITY GATE._ " it stated in a matter of factly. " _I WAS NOT PROGRAMMED TO CARE EITHER WAY._ _"_

"But you were programmed to be snarky?" Netsui raised an inquisitive brow, crossing his arms on his chest.

" _IN ADDITION TO BEING A REVOLUTIONARY INVENTION EMPLOYED UPON BY YEARS OF TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN SECURITY_ _MEASURES BY THE MOST BRILLIANT MINDS ON PLANET EARTH-_ "

"The ego on this thing!"

"- _MY CREATOR WAS PRIMARILY INFLUENCED BY ANOTHER HERO ACQUAINTANCE OF HIS, ONE MISCHIEVOUSLY DUBBED MIDNIGHT."_

"Oh, _now_ I understand," Netsui nodded at the explanation, before pointing an admonishing finger at the machine. "Alright, you win this one, you... bucket of bolts!"

"YOU'RE THE HERO _. ARE YOU NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE WINNING?"_

He jerked back violently at the affront. "Wha-"

 _'Netsui-kun,_ _give it a rest. This looks to be a battle you cannot win,'_ Akuma wisely admitted.

He turned away from the gate, because he didn't want to give it the satisfaction of seeing him pout. "Stupid machines..." he muttered under his breath. "What am I gonna do now? The next train's only gonna come in an hour, and I already know the bus is gonna be late,"

'Hmm,' Akuma pondered over the possibilities. _'Enlighten me, my friend, have you ever familiarized yourself with Musutafu?'_

'No. I don't even know what that is,'

 _'It's the name of the city we are currently residing in,'_ Akuma explained. Netsui nodded. _'Well, if I may propose, why don't we explore the vicinity to pass the time? It has been ever so long since we have had a decent outings, wouldn't you agree?'_

Netsui scratched his chin, mulling over the idea. 'That doesn't sound half bad. I can't remember the last time dad and I went out. Gosh it was so long ago...' he sighed jovialy. 'Good times,'

 _'What's stopping us then? Let's head out to the main street, I've been dying to see the epicenter of All Might's jurisdiction! Oh, but the shops and malls located there are so costly...'_

'You let me worry about that, Akuma,' Netsui began trotting to a random direction with a wide grin, hoping to arrive early at the main square, his purple backpack skipping in rhythm with his bouncing steps. 'Dad gave me more than enough this morning, I should be good for the day!'

 _'Don't spend too much! You may need yen for the bus fare,'_

'Dude, quit being so paranoid. Let's have some fun on our day off!'

As the nubile teen ran off to his new destination, a few stories away from him, atop a nearby building facing U.A. an eavesdropping silhouette observed from afar. A balding, crinkled looking man sat on the edge of the infrastructure, his greying brown remaining hair flowing in the high altitude, morning breeze, along with his loose wife beater attire barely covering the beer belly. His teal eyes followed the skipping high school student, casually sipping on the bagged jar of milk, until the student was well out of his sight.

"Youth," he spoke up, in a tone indicating reminiscence of nostalgia, raising his milk in the air in an informal toast. "How I miss you so," the man took a large swig of his drink like an alcoholic clutching to his booze, then wiping his rugged 'milkstache' with a hairy forearm. Burping unceremoniously, the man hovered over the streets once more. "Oh? What do we have here?" His thick brows closed the gap between them, grabbing a pair of binoculars.

The man bared witness to another of the same school, this one being discernibly female, and very similar to a person of interest, approached the security gate to enter the faculty. The reception she received in return must have been negative because it caused her to bellow out obscene profanities and stomp her feet in response. She clawed at the gate, which proved to be counterproductive as it didn't budge. She ultimately gave up, stepping away from the building towards wherever she was headed. Absorbing in the facials features of the grisly girl as she surveyed her surroundings, his smile widened in realization.

"Target acquired," he removed the binoculars and placed them back around his neck, picking up his black leather and putting on the trademark ski mask, carrying on with his contract. "Proceeding with the extraction,"

* * *

"Hey dad, it's me, hope I'm not calling at a bad time," Netsui said on his phone, rubbing his head sheepishly as the teen switched pace when he arrived near the street in question.

" _Netsui! Fantastic, ya called just as I was getting bored here,_ " Netsui's dad voiced his relief loudly on the other end.

"Wow, what kinda task did they put you on?"

" _Oh, ya know, the usual office shtick; reading reports on the agency's activity, filing overdue paperwork, blah blah blah, all the routine crap_ you're _gonna hafta deal with_ _eventually,_ " he chuckled dryly. " _Anyways, w_ _hat's up, kiddo? How's school treatin' ya?_ "

"It's been going fine, actually. There's... how do I put this?" he paused for a moment to think of well suited words. "A lot more 'high school' to U.A. than 'hero', if you catch my drift," he explained to the best of his knowledge.

Netsui's dad laughed wholeheartedly. " _Ohoho, ya say that now, just wait until the simulations roll in, you'll swallow those words in a snap,_ "

"Simulations? As in, hero training?" Netsui perked up a brow. As he chattered with his father, he briskly walked past the bustling sidewalks and several small businesses selling miscellaneous items disparaging from masks honoring the hard working heroes, to more common household elements, like furniture or kitchen utensils, and naturally the occasional fast food joint. He giggled under his breath at a hollowed out, plastic mask of Crimson Riot.

" _Sorta. It's more like different types of rescue and capture replicas of real life operations heroes face daily, from indoor hostage takeovers all the way to disaster aid. Obviously more watered down for junior years, but still, the challenge is definitely there. If I'm not mistaken, the other hero class - yer in 1-B, right?"_

"Yeah,"

" _Okay, so 1-A went to one such simulation yesterday, for general disaster aid training. At least, that's what was planned..._ " he trailed off.

The boy's attention perked up at this. "Now that I think about it, Kan-sensei said he had to take off somewhere so he and the other teachers had to end their classes early. School's out today too. Did something bad happen in the simulation?"

" _Of course, that sounds like the normal procedure for a villain invasion,"_ Netsui's dad stated artlessly.

"Villain invasion?!" the abrupt outburst caused the encircling bystanders to gawk at the U.A. student with a mixture of discomfort and fear in their visage. Netsui looked up and gazed at the onlookers apologetically. "Uh, sorry," he briefly mumbled, tone low in embarrassment.

" _I take yer spendin' yer day off out 'n' about in town, mingling with the people?"_ his dad said in a slight brazen jest.

Netsui chuckled diffidently, watching the crowd return to their individual business. "You could say that," he figured mimicking their actions would reduce the humiliation, so he proceeded onward to a much more pleasant location, hopefully. "But that class! Are they okay? Did any of them get injured?"

" _I think one of 'em did break his bones, albeit self inflicted, and it was severe enough t' get All Might involved, but nothin' that a lil' elbow grease and a sloppy grandma kiss can't fix,_ " his dad calmly said, undeniably referring to Recovery girl's quirk usage. Netsui shuddered at the last time she her wrinkly lip kissed him. " _The fact that most of 'em got away with it unscathed really boggles my mind. Kids these days're gettin' tougher and tougher, I swear,_ "

"Well, at least that's good," Netsui's walk slowed to a crawl as the scene of a hording mob forming on the main road, the majority of the people pulling out their phones and recording the spectacle in front of them. "But yeah, that's all I wanted to say. I'm gonna stay in Musutafu for a while, might hang out with friends, so don't panic if I come home a bit late,"

" _Ah, that's exactly what I like to hear. My boy, comin' out of his shell and bein' friendly with people. Y'have no idea how happy that makes me. Make sure yer safe though, I hear a lotta crime is comin' from that area lately,_ "

"I can see that," as he said this, a winged mutation type quirk user glided past his police pursuers, various yen bills fluttering off the slacked briefcase under his armpit. "But there are a ton of heroes patrolling around here, so the villain activities should be under control,"

" _Good. Don't let that stop you from havin' fun, alright my boy? Oh, looks like I gotta go too! My interns got an emergency for me, I guess I'll hafta see ya later,"_

"Bye, dad. Good luck on your mission,"

" _Thanks love ya bye!_ " the call rapidly ended as Netsui put his phone back in his pocket, opting to observe the newly found crime scene. Between the taller parties blocking his view and the ones flashing their cameras all over the sight, Netsui only made out the climax of the struggle; a massive dragon, with white claws covering part of its face, encapsulated the fleeing villain in its scaled talons.

The audience roared with thunderous applause, bouncing up and down ecstatically non stop at their up close and personal glimpse at a hero's hard work and a criminal scum's arrest. Would be photographers snapped pictures as fast as their fingers would let them, capturing the moment with their own eyes and inadvertently blinding others. Overwhelmed by the mob's mass enthusiasm, Netsui gingerly backed away, pressing back into other bystanders and apologizing for it, though it proved futile as their focus was drawn to the action.

Netsui managed to escape the crowd, but not without his head being assaulted by unwieldy elbows, bloated bellies and breasts. He shook off the awkward feeling, his skin tinted red. "I hope that wasn't rude of me," he said bashfully, cleaning the sensation of unwarranted contact off his skin, readjusting his backpack's position on hs shoulder blade. A childlike screeching was heard at the front of the mob, to which Netsui cringed at. "People shouldn't be this excited for a criminal bust! I feel like a pariah,"

 _'I will certainly vouch for them. In a way, I understand the hype, being a testimony to a criminal's arrest by a well known hero is a novel claim to fame, but the implications this shows me is, this is more of a byproduct of media over saturation,'_

'Exactly!' Netsui nodded.

 _'...You didn't understand a word I said, did you?'_ Akuma cunningly asked.

"Welp! I better take the back alleys if I want to get movin'!" he spun around and and passed by the bustling mob in stride. The cheering faded the deeper he dived into the littered alley, the unfortunately recognizable stench issuing flashbacks to the teen.

 _'You said that out loud.'_

"No I- _ahem_!" he coughed briefly. 'I mean, no I didn't, you're imagining things,' he darted his eyes to his surroundings, a puzzling visage forming. 'Speaking of imagining things... is it just me or are you getting a weird sense of déjà vu too?'

Akuma 'rolled his eyes', tracking his line of sight, particularly on the overflowing dumpsters flooding the dirt trailed alley. _'Not that I'm aware of. Why?'_

Netsui placed his hands on his hips, perplexed by the brick walls and foul odor that struck him as familiar. 'I feel like I've been here before, when I was a kid... but I can't put my finger on it. Must've been a while ago...' the feeling nagged fervently at his core, driving him to further contemplation.

Leaning on a nearby wall, Netsui thought to ponder more on the inexplicable lack of answer. However, a consistent grinding rocks ringed behind him. "Huh?" the teen did not wonder for long over it as the wall collapsed under his deceiving weight, plunging him into the ground and crush the bricks beneath him. Debris and gravel jumped into his vision, forcing unsuspecting Netsui to cough erratically as his lungs cried out for air. His purple backpack skidded a feet from him, on top of broken bricks breaking

Waving his palm around him, the remains of the wall vanished as oxygen entered his lungs again, yet his back still felt the discomfort of the hard rubble almost protruding through his skin. 'Damn, these walls are cheaper than they used to be,' he coughed the last of the debris out of him, his eyes tearing faintly as he flipped to his hands and knees. 'Aren't we in the more developed block of Japan? 'Cause it doesn't look like it,'

Being connected to Netsui's body and mind, Akuma felt the second hand pain inflicted on them. ' _Have we ever crashed through here before?'_

'Definitely not,' Netsui picked himself up, dusting off he dirt and dust from his school attire. 'Would've most likely remembered doing this specifically,' he looked up from the ground to the new, dull and colorless location he accidentally broke in. For a secret room hidden behind an inconspicuous building, Netsui had to admit there's was nothing of value or of dire importance to be seen as he paced around the confined space, other than a locked box attached to the wall. Sheets of dust scattered over the surfaces as far as the eye could see.

'It's more like a homeless man's secret shelter,' Netsui said.

 _'Mmm, no. 'Hideout' is a term which better suits the umbrage this place feeds me. There is something amiss here, I'm sure of it,'_ Akuma 'scratched his chin' in thought, helping Netsui in his investigation through his lenses, his young friend scavenging and scouring the accumulated dust potentially hiding vital information. _'Stop right now!'_ Akuma blurted out, and Netsui complied in full. _'Over on that corner, on the floor, there's an irregularity in the concrete!'_

Turning to where the mental entity instructed, Netsui patted his hands across the floor, the dust bouncing around him, tingling his nostrils, but he was unable to find anything of merit. "I can't see whe... where you're... where... wha... ACHOO!"

Netsui's sneeze blew away the sheet of dust covering the floor as it flew across the room from the force, revealing a buried wooden hatchway, a metal loop resting on the wood. Through blurry vision and sniffles, the teen's eyes widened. "It _is_ here! You were right, Akuma!"

 _'While I do appreciate the sentiment,'_ Akuma started hesistantly. _'Something warns me that further discovery is ill advised,'_ the mental entity paused in realization. __'Now that I think of it, for a location shut off entirely from the outside, it's appears to be caked in dust. How odd... Ah!'__ Akuma shook his head to return to the topic at hand. ' _It matters not. For now, t_ _he best course of action should be to call the authorities-'_

"And miss out on all the mystery? No way, I need to see this!" he defiantly said. The hatch door busted open with a swing of Netsui's wrist, settling the dust further back from the adventurous teen. "Down the hole we go!" he caromed down without a second thought

 _'Netsui!'_ Akuma yelled inwardly, though his friend paid him no mind as he dropped down into the hole with a splat, confounding the teen as he closed the hatch on his way down, landing at what seemed like arms length from the entrance if he had a jump start. On the other end of the room, a rusty metallic door appeared closed, a steel bar slid in the door frame slot. _'This was absolutely unnecessary! What if that was a trap meant lure in civilians?! Do you realize how much trouble you're going to be in if someone finds you down here?'_

"The hell did I land on?" he stared down at his wet shoes, the white portion of his sneakers soaked in a substance that made Netsui's visage lose its color.

 _'Are you even listening?! Goodness gracious, a part of me knew this would happen-'_

'Um, Akuma?' Netsui thought quietly.

 _'-Yes yes, I know, I was also one to encourage you over this hero debacle-'_

'Akuma, dude, we got a situation here,'

 _'-But that is no reason to go off on your own to do a hero's job-'_

'Dude.'

 _'- I am appalled. I don't care what Aisuru to do regarding all of this, at some point there needs to-'_

"Akuma!" Netsui screamed out loud to get his friend's attention.

 _'What?!'_ the frustration entity exasperated, only for his tone to flatten as he followed Netsui's unsettled sight. A dark red liquid coated his soles, dripping thick drops down to a collected pool under him. _'Alright..._ now _the_ _déjà vu is coming to me...'_ Akuma's uncertainty mimicked his friend's.

Tracing the pool of thick redness, he came to meet the door to what he presumed was towards the underground's inside, sharp whistles and rumbling piercing the silence behind the door. Netsui swallowed a lump in his throat as he grasped the cold rust of the ingot, with Akuma activating his backup power on his friend, two small, reddened horns protruding from the teen's black locks. In a swift motion, Netsui slid the handle off the slot, and the door cranked vociferously open on decaying hinges.

As expected, the eroded hinges echoed along the gloomy atmosphere, presenting the teen and his friend with a route and a procedure to the mystery. Pipes, bending and turning at every which way in an unorganized mess, steam penetrating through the many nooks and crannies of the oxidized metal that industrial duct tape barely contained, humidity, dirt, mold, were among the things hazel pupils could make out in the underground sector he stepped through, the black and white sneakers stirring the crimson substance into waves, all the while leaving footprints on dry land.

It didn't take long to understand they had stumbled upon a certain building's pipeline - _'A very poorly managed pipeline,'_ Akuma commented, according to the crummy conditions and the smell. The valves vibrated ceaselessly as more grey steam blasted from the coarse pipes, shaking impetuously for the course of the pipeline thereafter. Hot steam pervaded in the passage, and glancing at the walls showed the immediate and long term effect of the blasts; the cemented walls shed with excessive condensation, scrapping the last bits of paint off the walls.

His sneakers no longer splashed on wet pavement, nor did they leave evidence of Netsui's trespassing. The steam washed over his clothing like a warm shower, sullying his pristine school outfit with contaminated vapors, clinging them tightly to his abled figure.

The previously frazzled ponytail had popped out of its tied knot, scrunching up his messy mane to a grimy curtain, his curls sticking to his skin like glue. The miffed teen tried to part the hair off his eyes, but with sweating palms he only got so far before giving up entirely and focusing on the primary task.

"I've lost our trail, can't see anything through this steam, and we're at a fork in the road," he stated, darted between two seemingly similar pathways before him, one in front and one leading to the right, narrowing down on the end. A bug buzzed beside his ear, making him slap himself in order to catch it, the noise echoing on both paths. The flies buzzed incessantly as they bundled in groups towards the passage, doing a more efficient job at ignoring the humidity than the high school student was.

"And there are bugs too. Great." he remarked sarcastically, eyeing the flies hovering on the right and flicking any unwanted tiny members off him. "Where do we go now, since I'm game for pretty much anything at this point?" he emphasized his point by wiping a bead of sweat from his brow, staring down at his see through school uniform and groaning in disgust.

 _'What an unusual amount of bugs in such a isolated space, bit it makes sense they would relocate to a location as warm as this,'_ Akuma witnessed the bugs' behavior, flying in an intertwining pattern away from Netsui. _'That begs the question, however; flies tend to flock towards a reliable or plentiful organic food source. What is there organic inside of an underground pipeline?'_

'Well, what else do they eat?'

Akuma paused for a moment in thought. _'Mostly decaying or biodegradable materials, the likes you would see at the farmer's market, or in the back alleys on our way here,'_

Netsui sneered lightly. 'Right, I don't think the janitor of this place grows his own garden down in these dumps,' he shook his head, chuckling.

 _'Most certainly not. Nonetheless, it wouldn't be far-fetched to imply the janitor leaves his dead bodies down here, would it?'_

Netsui's chuckling fit stopped at this, his eyes trained on the end of the right side passage with a growing malaise. perilous imagery flashing by his stunted mind. 'Why do you have to be so morbid?' he meekly thought out.

 _'It is as it is. You could have easily retreated to fetch a policeman or a hero, now it's only us and whomever we're unlucky enough to run into. We can't rely on anybody else,'_ Akuma sternly affirmed in a scold. _'This is what you've put yourself into, so let's uncover this as quickly as possible,'_

Netsui frowned deeply at his friend's words. They cut deep and harshly like a serrated knife, he wouldn't lie. Hearing your closest friend chastise you for your incompetence left a nagging guilt on the pit of your stomach. After everything he had built his entire life until this point, he'd think he'd be a little more considerate of the person who was forced to ride alongside him on his endeavors, who always lend a helping hand.

Even so, Netsui wouldn't bring himself down for one simple mistake. "Okay, let's get to it then!" the teen said with newfound bravado, briskly picking up his pace along the passage.

The surplus amount of pipes diminished the longer he strode past the passage, his lungs relieved at the lack of hot air pelting him. The feeling didn't last long as another, more putrid scent whiffed on his nostrils, so prevalent he could taste it on the tip of his tongue. It was bitter tang, with a hint of copper. It made him feel unclean and unnerved, like an faint ghost was breathing coldly down his neck. A sweaty hand hovered at a twinge of unease in his stomach.

The walk on the narrow passage felt like an eternity, but he finally the reached the end, a broken down wooden door splintered on its frame, like a forced entry had taken place. The strength enhancement user kicked the remainder of the door, knocking what was left of the support to the wall. The unrestricted room buzzed with the swarming flies like static, and as Netsui cautiously stepped in, he gazed at their subject of consumption.

" _Oh shit!_ " he was barely able to contained a sharp gasp bubbling in his throat, running expeditiously to the comatosed body at the center of the room. Akuma's warnings were but blank noise to him as he flailed his arms and hair around furiously to scatter the bug swarm circling, and to ensure the flies stayed away he conjured a crystal dome behind him, closing any approach of the flies to the unconscious body. Silence was now present, yet peace was the hardest to achieve.

"Oh my god, oh my god, _oh my god..._ " he repeated to himself in a panic, propping up the body's head with a gentle hand. It dawned on him as he gazed down at the body, it was undeniably a boy, around the same age as him, with only his bald head of hair being clean, the rest of him which was coated in dried blood, clogging the wounds. "Please don't be dead," the teen pressed two fingers to the unconscious boy's pale yellow neck, feeling a weak force bounce on his digits. "Thank God! A pulse!"

 _'He's alive? In this state?!'_ Akuma shouted inwardly in disbelief. Bare naked and sporting a pair of tight white underpants, the boy's body was riddled in cuts of all sizes and depths, most notably on his scrawny chest, near his rib cage was a massive gash trailing further from his back. He showed apparent signs of starvation, the skin under his rib cage compressing with each slow inhale.

His appearance looked worse for wear; his large eye lids looked swollen and purple, his puffy lips peeling from how chapped they were, and the big holes he had for ears were stained with sweat and blood. _'Whomever has done this must have some other appointments if he left his victim like this in his wake. Surely now is the best time to_ _leave?'_

"You got that right," they settled mutually. Netsui slung a stiff arm over his shoulder, lifting up the feather-weighted boy and carrying him to safety, the dried blood soaking in his own sweat was of no concern to him. The crystal barrier went down, and the flies buzzed with activity as their food source seemed palatable. Netsui opted to ignore the tiny legs. "I think I more than overstayed my welcome, better leave the rest to the heroes," he said, the unease at the pit of his stomach growing.

The lights gave out as he stepped outside towards the pipelines, bleak darkness overcoming the narrow passage. Netsui blindly snapped his neck to all directions, taking precautionary steps back in anticipation for an enemy ambush. He held his breath, tuning his ears to the surroundings, still hearing the eerie steam whistles pierce his veiled discovery, followed closely by echoes of stomps drawing closer to his location. Red filters faded in atop the walls like silent sirens, erasing the blackness into shadows like beacons of light flickering down at him, in alarm.

 _'That is,'_ Akuma began, reaching the same conclusion as Netsui. The so called 'janitor' had returned. His horns protruded further from his forehead, his clothes tightening with the sudden physical changes. _'If we make it out of here,'_

* * *

 **A/N: For those of you wondering, 'Daiyaji' is a crossed translation between the words 'diamond' and 'resist'.**

 **This is going to be one of many other flashbacks/memories that'll be revealed about Netsui's true, deprived nature, and I'll attempt to have them connected in some way with the events or progression of the plot. However, his true nature is not to be confused with his older personality, as (SPOILER ALERT) Netsui's character arc will include more than one backstory *wink wink*.**

 **You've been warned.**

 **Now comment THIS INSTANT! *screeching intensifies***


	11. Skinner's Labyrinth

**A/N:** **WARNING! THE 'M' RATING HAS BEEN APPLIED BECAUSE OF THIS CHAPTER! THOUGH MINOR, I FELT IT PROPER!**

 **YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

* * *

Gaunt nails probed at the dirt imprints, closely dissecting its moist patterns with slanted eyes. Blood stuck to the bottom of the sole, meaning whoever managed to stumble upon this place had gone through the same entrance she did. Her black circles twitched as the thought of her day long hard work come crumbling down to bits and pieces. And if the echoes were anythin to go by, the culprit was making a run for it.

She forced herself spasticly out of her seething stupor, standing back up and letting her vision pursue the trail bloodied footprints, the purple backpack hauling on the pooling liquid becoming a mere afterthought as she dumped the bag down, staining the fabric. "What a goddamn coincidence. Some moron decides to show up unnannounced on my shelter, right on my day off too,"

The wind carried around her legs, blowing the U.A issued skirt away. The predatory girl kicked her leg up in a split, throwing a blast of slicing into the fogged passage, cutting the mist down the middle where she shot. She peered down at the stolid picture in the student ID card covered by half curly locks of black hair, green slits casting an icy glare at the homeless looking student.

"It doesn't matter, if I can't enact my plans on the faculty," her hand let the card fall daintily on the ground before she stomped on the boy's blank expression with a descending, wind driven stiletto. "I'm afraid you will have to do," she said as she faltered, diverting from the path laid out by the intruder to a locked door nearby, facing the wall. She gingerly reached in her boots and drew a small key. She inserted it then twisted it in the slot, entering the shortcut.

"All these trespassers all go the same way, and every goddamn time I have to close off a passage," she shook her head in annoyance, strutting the hall with ferocity. "Do they even realize how long _it takes_ , or how much it costs to _repair that specific entry_?!"

"No, I don't," a husky voice sounded behind her, causing to pause in her tracks, her figure shifting to stiffness. She glanced over her shoulder, coming into contact with an older, pudgier man in a wife beater, closing the door behind him with a loud _clang._ "Enlighten me, darlin'," he said mockingly as alabaster shards formed on the palm of his hand.

Her eyes shifted to slits.

* * *

" _C'mon, c'mon... can't see a damn thing..._ " the boy mouthed the words as silently as possible, gazing fretfully at his hazed phone screen, his high quality full moon background meeting his gaze as he swiftly restarted the call. He pressed it to his wet ears, the loudspeaker incessantly beeping like echoes. " _Work, for fuck's sake!_ " he barely managed to suppress the urge to raucously squawk, forcing his lips shut.

Warm sweat tapped on his furrowing brows and trickled down his naked torso, crashing onto the caroming figure the teenager firmly carried one handed as he scurried away from the other intruder. The labyrinthine underground disoriented Netsui in its twists and turns. With only obscure vermilion lighting the passages, every step the boy took felt identical to one another.

Soft echoes replaced the phone's white noise as Netsui peered down at his misty arm, the rising steam and harshly bright lights stinging at his eyes.

"Fuck..." reticent ire escaped his lips in a buzz as he fumbled, fitting the phone back in his pocket and doubling his pace around the pipelines, flinging the comatose boy over his shoulder, being mindful of both of their slippery skins. "Signal went out. The janitor cut the power," Netsui stated in a precarious matter-of-factly, heart beating a million miles per hour. "They must've really wanted to keep this place hidden. Hope I'm not late on getting this guy some first aid,"

 _'Gah! This confounded steam is hindering our sight,'_ Akuma's sage tenor held a layer of vigilance. _'Whoever this other intruder may be, he is showing astute knowledge of the valve system if he's utilizing it so efficiently against us,'_ Akuma pondered for a moment _._ _'Heat rises, so keep your head down, get a greater view of where you're headed,'_

"That's not gonna matter now, I can't use my ocular quirks without my eyes blurring," a free hand thrashed the steam to no avail, the three way navy blue passages remained concealed in mist. "I think... I've been going in circles,"

 _'Impossible!'_ Akuma interjected. _'We've ran all the way forward since carrying this child, what gave you that idea?!'_

"Oh, I have?" Netsui asked inwardly with slurred speech, dragging sharp breaths in bountiful heaves. "I... didn't notice..."

Akuma's 'eyes' widened in realization. _'By the Gods, you're suffocating down here! We need to find a way out quickly before the vapors consume us,'_ he tilted his 'head', a whizzing blare vibrating behind his friend and growing closer. _'Something's coming our way!'_

"They found us alre-!" a heavy winded projectile sliced off the corner of the entrance, interrupting the bewildered Netsui as he leaped away from the incoming debris. He landed on the ground roughly, with the other boy skidding across the blue desquamated paint as the steam blew away in the plethora of impacts. The air got knocked out of Netsui's system, choking frantically as his lungs begged for precious oxygen.

 _'Hrrmm, this crook is much more ingenious than I could ever imagine. They have us pinned down and he hasn't shown it's face once,'_ Akuma stated in scoff. Netsui felt the skin of his forehead tighten. _'I didn't wish to resort to this, but they left me no choice,'_

'Y-You're not actually thinking of... fighting them head-on... are you?' Netsui thought out, disorientated as the humid room spun around. In the midst of catching his breath, his hand fell on a sharp fragment piercing the dirt, making him muffle a pained cry.

 _'It's our safest option at the moment. There aren't any eye witnesses nearby, so we should be in the clear,'_ Akuma's fortitude shined within Netsui's mind. _'I'll deliver the necessary power sparingly, as to not weaken the building's infrastructure, you try to apprehend the criminal and-'_

"No... I can't..." the weary teen swallowed a dry lump in his throat, sluggishly shaking his head. He picked himself back up, hastily hoisting the unconscious boy on his arms bridal style and retracting the horns back inside him. "I gotta... get this guy... outta here... first..." with newfound bravado, Netsui set off towards the rightmost hallway, not leaving Akuma with a moment to retaliate.

 _'Netsui-kun, what you are asking for is suicide! You'll never reach the exit in a state like this, you'll run out of stamina before you even get close. We don't know how many there are pursuing you!'_

"Good," Netsui boldly made up his mind, rushing past the empty, vacuous site, with the other underground occupant audibly giving chase. "I'd rather carry around that burden than leave this guy out here, alone, to die. I may not know what the hell is going on, or who did this, but that's not important,"

Akuma remained in his pondering silence for an unnatural amount of time, frowning deeply at the resoundingly brunt grief and rue displayed by his usually dense friend. The mental entity grunted offhandedly, a twinge of regret in his metaphorical soul. _'I won't protest this decision any further, no matter how absurd or contrived it sounds. But do riddle me this,'_

The warming buildup siphoned out of Netsui's form, leaving the boy's momentum destabilized, the efforts of the multi quirked legs finally bearing down on the teen.

 _'What are you planning to do with this one?'_ Akuma spread warmth to his arms to emphasize the subject of concern.

"I'll find someplace... safe... away from all the steam... somewhere with only one way in, that can't be easily found. Then I'll hold them off... until I'm sure I can get him out..." Netsui finished his statement with a confident grin, renouncing the building with pure determination. Akuma could only nod in compliance, seeing as he had no more control over anything.

Thankfully, their yearning for shelter was well met as another destroyed wooden frame appeared at the end of the presumed dead end. "No bugs," Netsui quickly inspected the damages. "I'll take it," With a second thought, the tenacious boy ran inside, and immediatly his nostrils breathed in a refreshing intake of oxygen.

The warm tingling bite of sweat grew colder as the matted clothing clinging to Netsui's body felt like icicles, though for the moment he didn't the change. He shook off as much sweat as he could, what with his arms busy lifting a life in the balance and his hair slapping him with turn of the cheek.

"Okay, now that I can think properly again," he said, relieved, then taking a quick look around the unfamiliar territory, not a desolate room but in fact another hallway. "Where are we?"

Coupled by an air of parallelism between the other halls, the current passage held a visible, yet confined environment. As if it sacrificed the copious amounts of of scarce visibility - to which Netsui was grateful for - for a more cramped cage. Netsui glimpsed at the end of the hallway as he paced carefully, spotting another entrance up front connected to a red tinted room, a splintered door who'd seen signs of struggle standing on the other end of the room.

Glancing down momentarily, Netsui took extra precautionary measure to assure the unknown boy was still breathing before continuing on at a brisker step. For how unfit the young boy was, he was somehow holding on as best as he subconsciously could. It was better than the alternate outcome, but he chose not to think like that at a time like this. He repositioned his body, throwing him over his shoulder, making sure his head was facing him.

A hairy head of hair and an unconscious head poked inside the room, inspecting the dark milieu illuminated by a rows of overhead bulbs transfixed being glass cases and metal bars in a crisscross pattern, shining unilaterally on a rectangular object below, its pink back facing upwards. Netsui approached it, and upon closer look recognized it as a mobile phone, a frilly, rubbery rabbit eared cover wrapped around the outlines.

"Someone was here before," he said, scanning the cover for any prints, turning it on. A misshapen 'L' was crusted over the digit code. "Alright, you're the only live thing I found so far. Please give me a clue,"

Through trial and error, Netsui entered the correct code, gaining access straight into the phone's video section. On a pastel background, two recording files resided; one had a random assortment of letters and numbers labeled, with a group of students smiling mischievously at the camera, while the other displayed nothing, and was simply titled 'Peekaboo'.

Netsui raised a brow. "I'm not gonna like this, am I...?" the hesitant teen asked nobody in particular.

 _'It's the only lead we've had thus far. Whatever the content may be, it'll keep us informed over who were dealing with... Perhaps another route as well. You should advance to find a quiet place to listen,'_ Akuma stated as sagely as possible, but sounded much like his friend.

"Yeah, there's no way that's ever gonna happen. Not down here it won't,"

 _'True, true...'_ Akuma sighed. _'We don't need to meet that 'janitor' as of yet, so don't turn it on,'_

Nodding diligently, Netsui placed a dry palm on the cold handle of the door. "Well, here goes nothing," he braced himself.

However, before he could twist it open, a hefty weight slammed into the metal frame on the other side, jolting Netsui away from the door, instinctively wrapping an arm around the unconscious boy. Black sneakers halted firmly at a distance the boy thought was safe, knitted vision peering at the dent left on the frame. Another slam resounded followed closely after, the dent, a mature grunt making the young student's heart stop.

'There are others down here!' hazel eyes widened. 'I thought I was further away from anyone else! This place is more convoluted than I thought!'

Once again, the weight slammed again, and the door stood upon the remainder of its hinges. One more push and it'd cave in, exposing them.

He shook his head at the first plan that popped in his head, without taking notice of the phone slidding off his pocket in the process.

The frame toppled with the final slam, breaking the door down off the foundations. The steel plate fell with an older, chubby man on top, landing harrowingly on the hard surface, eliciting aching cracks from his spine. He staggered, rolling off the steel plate onto the dirt, eyes scrunched tightly. As his mind flowered again to the thumping pain, he let out his surprise in an unnerved groan.

"Ow...I think I bit off more than I could chew," his head buzzed with blank static as he gathered the strength to sit and cough lightly. "You kids these days really give this ol' man a work out, don't ya?" he asked apathetically, gazing at the gangly girl towering over him.

She tapped the tip of her shoe on the dirt, sensing the minuscule daggers piercing the tear of her knee high grey socks. "I wouldn't have to do that if you didn't barge in here like you own the fucking place," she spat. "What is it with people like you, trespassing on my property?" she gave him a noxious glare through glossy blonde locks, pupils slanted like deep gashes.

This look didn't faze the greying man, grinning defiantly. "People like me? Ha!" he got up effortlessly, driving the ravaging girl's brows to twitch lividly, slits turning to microscopic dots. "Little girl, let me tell ya; If ya found people like me in yer lifetime I'm pretty ya'd be someone else's property by now," he tapped a plump finger to his "Either that, or six feet under, depending on the request,"

The girl growled. "What the fuck are you talking about? Did someone pay you to come kidnap me?" the venomous inflection edged on her bared teeth. "What kind of sorry cowards put you up to this?"

" _Tsk tsk tsk,_ I'm afraid I can't answer that. You know, business discrepancies and the like," he informed her languidly, forming a white prick in his middle finger, pushing it down with his thumb. "If it makes ya feel any better, my client wants ya alive,"

"I don't give a shit," she deadpanned.

"Ya should," The old man lost the nonchalant grin. "I hear the alternatives are usually brutal," he threw his hand forward, flickering the white prick, hissing at her chest. She swiftly smacked the prick with her shoe, splitting it onto the ceiling, still maintaining her stern fury on top of him.

"Work on your parlor tricks, old geezer," she said, unimpressed.

"Actually, I was hopin' you'd do that," he cracked a smile open.

She broke her poise with an arched brow. Her deep frown was stapled out to a gag as a colossal weight landed on top of her, crushing her body to the dirt and bulging her eyes out of their sockets. A sharp pain erupted on her back, and it didn't take long to figure out the pressure was a fresh stab wound.

" _Get offa me! I'll make you pay for this, old man!_ " She tried to push the weight off but found herself unable to, driving her to annoyed confusion. "Huh?!"

"I gotta say kid, I wasn't expectin' anyone else down here, much less anybody playin' hero," once more, he ignored the idle threats. "Ya got guts, I'll give ya that,"

The exposed weight groaned loudly in discomfort, constraining against the invisible force locking his body in place. "What the hell?" Netsui looked at his clenched hands, shaking at his attempt to move. "I... can't... move..."

"Yep, ya can thank my quirk fer that," the chubby man approached the downed duo - now that he thought about it, technically a trio. " **Calcium Control** , is what I like t' call it. Lets me use up the calcium in my system t' turn it into whatever I damn well please. Problem is, the larger the weapon the more calcium I gotta use. Then again, ya can't get a good omelette without crackin' a few eggs,"

The elder man emphasized his point by forming a white shard on his index. "That extends to other people's too. If I manage to make contact with their own skeletons, well..." his devious smirk returned, waving the shard between the angry girl and attentive boy. "I think ya get the gist of it,"

Sweat dropped from Netsui's brow, his limbs still protesting, slowly inching their way to the unconscious boy. " _Hrmm..._ What do you want from me?"

"You? Nothing. I ain't gettin' crap by salvagin' you,"

Akuma's attention peaked. _'Salvage?'_

"But her? Ho boy, am I gettin' a pretty penny from her!" a boisterous chuckle escaped his lips, before it delved into a dry coughing fit, feeling his rib cage tighten around his shivering lungs. " _Whew_ _..._ you kids're taking a lot more outta me than I thought,"

The girl, crushed by Netsui, spoke up meekly. " _You damn coward..._ being easily influenced by money..." she growled throatily. "You're the worst kind of _bastard_ on this _shitty_ planet,"

"Oh, I'm flattered, little darlin', really," the man feigned adulation, infuriating her beyond the point of no return, reaching down to his belt and clutching at a hidden object's handle. "Now, if you could be patient for a tad, I gotta fulfill my client's request," he drew the object, revealing it to be a silver, dirt stained Desert Eagle. He cocked the barrel. "No witnesses."

He pressed the cold muzzle to the bridge of Netsui's nose, the view of his wrinkled finger lightly nudging the trigger caused him to pop his brows. _'_ Oh no...' Netsui swallowed thickly, his limbs futilely fighting the man's quirk to the best o his ability. 'I can't be found out!' "Any last words, say 'em now," the old man offered. Netsui grit his teeth, struggling to bash his gun away.

" **Dirt...** "

The man was taken aback. "Okay, wasn't expecting that fer the life o' me," he said in slight awe, scrunching his eyes at a large hand obscurely extending to grab a wayward phone.. "Wait, whose hand is-"

" **Attack!** " the unconscious boy suddenly yelled out, throwing a clump of soil towards the old man's visage, catching him off guard as the dirt stung at his sight, while the now awoken boy rolled off his savior's figure and out the door, hand over his blood stained gash. Netsui's body felt looser again, being able to freely move himself, while the girl, weighted down by the intruder, resorted to charging her quirk.

" _Gah!_ Sonuvabitch!" he recoiled, losing grip on his pistol, flinging it across the room, furiously scraping the soil blurring his vision. His smirk had gone at the surprise, replaced by a spiteful scowl. "Ya know what?! Screw it!" he bitterly said through blurry vision. Alabaster spikes rose from his right arm at miscellaneous angles as he cocked it above the duo. "I'll leave a mark, free of charge!"

Netsui saw it coming and dodged out of the way, crawling to the only possible exit, while the girl flipped at the opportune moment, blocking the man's swing with her winded leg. Still, the spikes grazed her tender flesh, narrowly avoiding her bones and her face. She looked at her point of entry, seeing the boy that jumped her approaching the other intruder. The one that managed to escape her clutches at every which way, was still alive.

Her tight snarl threatened to chap her lips. _'None of you are **going anywhere!** '_ she thought, the acidic bile spilling through her teeth. She sent the wave of slashing wind out, pushing the old man off of her, giving her the upper hand. Using the momentum of the wind, she vaulted effortlessly into a handstand and a split, pivoting around to cut at her nearby foes at their midsections. "Like _hell_ I'd let you get away!"

The old man and Netsui gasped at the slash as they lost their balance, falling on the ground, away from their individual objectives. The old man ate the dirt, filling the gaps in his mouth to add insult to injury. The student hit the door's frame, his head blasting to the other end like a rock through cardboard, jolting the naked boy in fear.

He turned his shaking head towards the athletic girl, gracefully settling back on her skinny feet to gaze at the groaning old geezer. "Sakura, what the hell are you doing?!" he called out to her. 'Sakura' perked her face up, her attention now split. "Wait..." he inspected her up and down. "Are you wearing my school uniform? What's the matter with you?!"

In a daze, Netsui spun his head to look at the shocked boy, baffled. "You two know each other? Then why is she trying to kill you?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," he gave her a puzzled stare, utilizing the nearest wall as a crutch. "I mean, I knew you're a massive bitch, but I didn't think you'd go this far," Netsui's breath hitched.

'Sakura' whipped her head, glaring slanted, bloodshot pupils at the lanky boy who had just insulted. Without uttering a word, she began charging another wind projectile. His brows arched at this, gaping down at the accumulating winds slicing at the girl's leggings. Realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "My luck just ran out, didn't it?" he asked no one in particular.

" _Smart boy,_ " she said, her voice as dead as a corpse. Leaping at her target, 'Sakura' thrust her leg straight at his bare neck. The boy froze in shock, his voice cracking under pressure as his heart throbbed infinitely. His gaze stuck to the imminent threat like deer in the headlights, unable to move away. His body wouldn't stop trembling no matter how many times he inwardly shouted at himself. _'Of all the times to run out of luck,'_

Netsui broke free from his predicament, darting between them with his arm raised, the attack landing on the side of his rib cage. Pain resounded from his ribs, Sakura's legs stopping short from cleaving his both in half thanks to his bone and muscle quirks. He groaned in agony, locking his arm firmly around her leg to keep her still.

"Huh? What the..." the naked boy skimmed to the mad man that helped him again. "Why didn't my... Ah, I can't handle this anymore! I'm out of here," he blurted in a panic, rushing out, to where he couldn't know, as long as it meant away from those three.

Despite how strong he seemed, Sakura was left unimpressed. " _Tch,_ what a pathetic display. Sacrificing yourself for such a _weak punk_ like him, who doesn't even stick around to help. If you had just forgotten about him altogether you might've had a chance against me," she pierced the tip of her shoe deeper into his carcass, forcing him to collapse on his knee. "Now this place will be your grave, and as soon as I find that punk, I'm gonna bury him with you and that has-been,"

The man coughed dryly, blinking away his unfocused vision. "Just you wait, ya edgy cunt...!"

 _'Don't let her get the best of you Netsui,'_ Akuma spoke internally, the warmth he delved being drowned out by the gaping wound. _'Please, get up and fight!'_

Netsui nodded inwardly, straining against her in attempt to gain control. Sensing his strength overtaking her, Sakura drove her foot deeper into him, the bottom of her sole buried in his ribs, rubbing at his lungs inflating and deflating with every ragged breath.

"Is this all U.A. has to offer?!" Sakura said with a hint of personal offense. "I almost regret taking the time out to plan my ambush on the _fucking_ school, it doesn't seem so worth it anymore," the injured student, having heard enough, strenuously pushed her leg off him in a last ditch effort. The girl paid this no mind as she pivoted on one foot and punted his stomach.

The student halted the strike, but the slicing wind carried past him, sharply convexing on the thick skin and muscle and painstakingly rearranging his intestines, blobs of compact saliva exited his mouth from the impact as he was brought down to both his knees.

"Look at yourself, Shinshi Netsui," his eyes went wide. "You got into the hero course yet you can't handle someone who couldn't even pass the entrance exam. I can't imagine how you must feel," she poked her lip with a finger. "If you're an example of the school's greatness, then that must mean... the school's superiors shouldn't be any different. How convenient," she licked her lips in twisted gusto. "I've been _dying_ to get a piece of that Midnight-sama,"

A black ocean flashed on Netsui's irises as his anger spiked. In one swift motion, he thrust her leg down, slamming it against the hard ground, burying deep underground, rippling waves of pins and needles erupting on her leg and disorientated her focus. Netsui straightened from his crouching position, latching a hardened hand to the unexpectedly mushy face of the culprit of his pain.

"Don't you fucking touch her!" he howled loudly, flinging her flimsy body across with enough power to knock the older man back down and crash her a ways away from him. Her body twisted in the air before roughly hitting the dirt, skidding her and sending debris flying throughout the passage. Netsui ignored the presence of the flesh wound, opting to take a battered breath.

The old man beat his fist on the dirt. "For the love o' god's sake, I am losin' my patient with you kids," he rocketed himself up, glaring wrinkles daggers at the boy who saw the man as more of a nuisance than a hindrance. "I fuckin' hope my client raises the god...damn... fee..." the edge in his tone gradually deteriorated the lower his sight sank until he retained eye contact with Netsui's hand.

Arching a brow, he followed his gaze to his hand, and his brows furrowed at what he held. A torn pair of void eye balls stared back at the student causing to yelp, frightened, dropping the face. Like a sheet of skin, the empty face flopped near Netsui, the mess of lifeless blonde hair cushioning its fall like a bed, strands of dainty locks fluttering to its opened cracks on the lip, reverted to a horrified visage.

To Akuma, he could tell from experience, this was a visage of an early demise.

'Did I just... rip Sakura's face off?' his shaking eyes met the girl's silhouette, with the old man's following suit. She stood far in the passage as the debris cleared, unveiling another, entirely different woman than before. This one mimicked her figure more; caved in cheeks accentuating the bones, dark bags under the eyes from sleepless nights of strategizing, skin tightly grasping its form, with battle scars spread throughout.

 _'I think we may have figured out how many more people are down here,'_ Akuma said.

"Well," the man said, spikes of alabaster bone coating his skin. "This just got a helluva lot more interestin',"

" _You..._ " she hoarsely spat in a whisper. She pointed a gaunt nail towards Netsui, her slit, green eyes piercing through long, blackened hair draped in a layer of flesh and crimson liquid. " _You tore my mask off..."_ the gathering wind increased tenfold, aggressively shredding the sound barrier with the blistering tornadoes on her legs. " _I won't forgive you for this!_ "


	12. Martyrs

**A/N:**

 **Netsui: Why is there smoke coming out of the pipes, Sakura?**

 **Sakura: What, Oh! That isn't smoke, it's steam. Steam from the Steamed Clams we're having. Mmm, Steamed Clams!**

 **Netsui: ... *leaves***

 **Sakura: Phew. *rushes out the window towards U.A***

 **...**

 **Yeah, I don't know why I did that either.**

 **Also, I finished the next chapter before I finished this one. What am I?**

* * *

" _I won't forgive you for this!_ " the raging storm of a woman screamed, followed closely by tremors his bare feet. The shards penetrating the walls shook slightly under the weight of it all, and the slanted dent let debris fall from its cracks on the walls and ceiling. There were also tiny fragments on the ground, bleeding blackened smoke and sizzling in ponds. To him, they looked like it could burn his skin if he stepped on them.

"Holy crap, that girl is pissed," the boy with the wide, fish-eye pupils trudged along the somber passage, hand clasping at his wounded side. The walls echoed with the sound of destruction and struggles, and he was thankful that, even if only this once, he wasn't caught in the crossfire. "Boy, I do not wanna be whoever that guy was. Now that I think about it, should I..." he pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "Nah, I'm no good like this. I gotta get a Pro Hero down here, can't imagine those two surviving for long down here,"

"I do have to apologize for pretending to be down," he cringed at the burden he placed on the one trying to help him. He may have been tired beyond all belief, having spent days escaping the twisted girl's clutches with the excess of his quirk eating at him, and with his stubborn mindset forcing his embarrassment of predominantly naked to drown out all other concerns, he hated to admit it; that was no good excuse. "Not my brightest idea, but I won't waste my second chance now! Or was it more like, the eleventh...?"

"Wait, that doesn't matter, what the hell am I saying?" he shook his head, feeling his sanity slip as he looked down at his phone in hopes of figuring out a way out by continuously checking the signal. He entered his code, and was greeted with the video section. He cocked a confused brow. "Hmm? 'Peekaboo'?" he read the title out loud, bewildered etched in his visage. "Sakura must've thought it cutesy if she made this... figures,"

He tapped the video, a black window engulfing the screen, before the footage played out.

Oversaturated blurs crossed the ends of the camera pointed to the wall, the dimly lit environment dropping the footage's frames. The boy cursed as he squinted his vision, attempting to decipher any clue of the filming location or the sound of wet footsteps. _'I told the guys not to come down here, but nooooo! They just_ had _to drag me with 'em! And for what, some dumb conspiracy theory? Street cred?'_

 _"To whomever kind of pretentious trespasser is watching this, who thinks they can walk in unannounced,"_ the unfamiliar raspy female voice said through the video, causing the boy and his thought to stop in their tracks. He gazed down at the video, seeing the walking feet of the camerawoman. _"I have to say, I wasn't expecting any of you down here... which is actually very fortunate to me this time. One of you has clothes that would fit me nicely, that Oatari guy and I are about the same size I think,"_

 _'Hold on... trespassers? That sounds exactly like how she talked back there, there's no way... unless...'_ the boy's brows knitted together, a puzzled expression etched into his features. "But that _was_ Sakura, there's no doubt about it, she knows my name," he muttered under his breath, taking a sharp left at the nearest crossroad.

The video continued, the camerawoman approaching vermilion lit room. _"However, I don't know how you did it, but you managed to run away from me, so for that, I hesitantly give you my congratulations. Out of everyone I had the displeasure of meeting, you are the most annoying one of all, so besides anyone who stumbles upon this message, I would like to especially give you a warning,"_ a skinny hand pushed the door open, and the frames smoothed enough to follow the footage without hiccups.

 _"I've already dealt with that friend of yours, Oatari Kouna, and taken his clothes for myself, so all that's left is you,"_

His eyes widened. _'She thinks I'm dead...'_. Kouna froze in realization, his heart dropping in his chest.

 _"I know you can't escape; I always make sure to close off all alternative exits when I'm here, and only_ I _know the way out. If I find you, wherever you are, I promise I will do to you the same as I did to her,"_ the camera panned to the ground, and the sight caused the boy to nearly hurl out the acidic bile that leaped in his throat.

Like a murder scene, a tattered and bloodied corpse laid pale at the camerawoman's feet, unmoving and hollow. All light had left her eyes, as well as life in her figure, a shell of a teenage girl was all that remained as the camerawoman kicked her like a ragdoll. Slabs of meat and blood slapped against dirt, the face devoid of skin flooded her indignant resting spot and stained her attire red, her mouth was cracked open, allowing entry for the worms and bacteria to crawl around where her lips were supposed to be and feast upon her despair and the sluggish trails of muscle.

The shaven girl lifelessly gaped at the camera, her visage in detrimental petrification. Kouna's every muscle disavowed him from looking away as a dollop of bile threatened to project off his mouth. Despite the lack of lively features on her expression, he was absolutely certain of one thing, his confusion turned to urgent panic as he realized. This dead girl is...

 _Was_ Sakura.

 _"Though, I won't wear your skin for myself,"_ the camerawoman said, panning to herself, displaying bottom up footage of the twisted woman, in blonde hair and green pupils through hollow eye sockets. Vermilion lines curled around her neck and lashes, streaming bits of flesh down like rivers of blood carrying remains of the deceased. _"Male anatomy won't allow it,"_

Kouna averted his gaze, blocking his mouth with an arm as his throat forced him to gulp down the voiding in his bowels. The festering feeling of disgust manifested within him, turning knots in his guts to tug relentlessly, his belly gurgling from the strain.

Wiping the saliva off the corner of his mouth, he closed the video, shoving it down his underwear. "Abiru," was the only pertinent thought that came to his worried mind, finally reaching the end of the damaged passage. He pounded at his chest, making sure the bile stayed down. "I gotta find him!"

* * *

" _I won't forgive you for this!_ " 'Sakura' jumped and clasped her hand around an overhead pipe, the adrenaline overtaking the heat burning her palms. She clicked her shoes together, wind gathering at her lower figure. " _Fucking **die**!" _ in obfuscated swings and whips, the girl dispatched a cascade of miniature tornado cuts, flooding the underground passage and driving the steam deeper into the area.

"Oh no," the old man muttered bitterly, ducking to grab the flat metal door. "I ain't fallin' for this one again," he spun the door over him, planting it in directly in front of him as a makeshift shield, as well as a barrier splitting the trio. Just as he planned, the minuscule blasts tapped against the metal. "Nice try, darlin', but yer tricks're getting real old, real fast," he said condescendingly, reaching down to grab his gun.

Seeing this, Akuma activated the third circle as Netsui sprung into action into a sprint, to which the old man caught onto. "Ya think I forgot about ya?!" He swiped his hand towards the oncoming student, white projectile aimed diagonally at his chest. Netsui let himself fall, sliding under the torrent of shard as they pierced the opposing wall. Propelling himself upward with a enhanced arm, the multi quirked student threw his weight down to his foot, punting the old man in a single pressure point and blowing him and the barrier to the entryway.

In the meeting of cold, hard steel with soft, chubby flesh, icy shocks zapped on the nerves his spine, creeping up in cracks and uncomfortable fractures to his regenerative bones. Pangs of developing stress pushed down his intestines, rearranging his organs in a mismatch that he wished he could trade his quirk for relief.

"Fuckin' hell... I shoulda known," the old man breathed out in a hush, inhaling a pained breath as the electricity dispersed, but the flames spread through his newly misshapen insides. "A strength enhancement cunt... fan-fuckin'-tastic."

 _'Quick, Netsui-kun! While he's distracted!'_ Akuma's growing zest stirred within Netsui as the warmth spread throughout every inch of his body, the intensity more prevalent on his horns. Netsui's dormant quirks rose at the sight of the challenge, carried on to the surface by an overtly engaged mental entity.

Netsui attempted to contain the amassing arduous energy, the roles reversing between so he's the one with the leveled head. 'What's got you so excited all of the sudden?!' he thought inwardly, tightened the muscles on his calves, with enough power to form fractures beneath his soles. 'I thought you wanted to run,'

 _'Pah! Forget running! I yearn for the rush of battle!'_ Netsui's limbs twitched madly, writhing in an effort to move and only being strained the by boy's will as his sight focused on the only individual in the room. The world around him was but an afterthought, his mind losing itself to the moment, for what Akuma had longed for since sentience was cursed upon him. Strife, discourse, confrontation.

A animus, yet belated growl sounded inside Netsui, mirroring his inner emotions.

" **Shiken...** " swelling calves stretched his teal pants as the fractures piled by the boy's ankles, cocking his right arm back. His limits, his constraints shattering amidst the prospect of the heavy handed blows he'd delivered onto the villains, his narrowed eyes swimming in the dark pools of his iris. " **Lariat!** " he shot forward like a bullet, his form unseen to the naked eye as his pulsing arm collided with the old man arching a concave on his wrinkled neck against the door.

The old man lost the ability to breathe, his lungs kicking at his rib cage as surprise overtook his system, extracting the air out of his lungs and building up the throat's blockage. The old man's mouth cracked open in a silent screech, like raspy whimpers barreling through a straw. Like it was stapled to a wall, his right arm struggled against an immense exertion impelling it stuck, nearing the point of tearing the arm from its socket, while the other arm was trapped under the countering pressure of the boy's reach. _'I can't reach my gun... crafty cunt...!'_

'Sakura' halted her bleeding efforts, perplexed and astonished at the charging razed metal. _'Is that kid trying to push me away from the exit? **Shit!** '_ she scrambled to dodge, but her movement slowed to a crawl as the pin and needles pricked at her legs when her legs tapped the ground. The door hit her like a freight train, battering her weightless frame as the rushing winds blasted her back in retaliation. It grazed her skeletal frame with enough force to leave imprints on her gashes tainted in numbness. " _Why are you still walking?!_ " frothing rage oozed and shot through her teeth in a venomous hiss, and she wished it corroded the metal deep so her nails _scraped their dermis and_ _strangle the fuckers._

With the center of gravity working against her, she pounded a fist in a desperate effort to redirect the charge, the strength in her legs becoming an impossibility to find. The old man's heart beat in the crack of his throat, meeting the ends of his esophagus like a stitch, and the vibrations of protest from the girl dampened his health even further. A white shard protruded from his hand as tears freely trailed down his rosy cheeks, clawed fingers hovering the nape of the boy clotheslining him, biting his lower lips as he pierced the boy's exposed torso, and going wide eyed because _'This wackjob is still goin'?!'_

The trio broke through solid brickwork, but neither of them wavered. The old man repeat the motion, stabbing, puncturing breathlessly and stiffly at the soft tissue and tattered cloth, incessantly wailing until the shard came to pierce bone. Blobs of blood profusely rolled off the hollows of his side, his pupils twitching in pain with every new flesh wound, softening the grip on the old man's trigger finger. Netsui felt the bone quirk on beefy palms scrape at his muscles, ripping his shirt to threads, and the numbness disguising the bloody wounds.

"Why..." The old man's hoarsely resonance cried out as he stabbed deeper at Netsui's torso. "Won't..." Again, pulling a strand of muscle as he cocked it back. "You..." hazel eyes clenched at the burning veins coursing. "Die?!"

A thunderous, primal growl scratched the glands at his throat as Netsui let it out, planting his sole on the dirt and flinging the villains hellbent on carnage. The old man and 'Sakura' crashed on a dead end, the hard bricks flattening her frame squeezing the hemorrhage to slip out of her cracked lips, buzzing her out of reality. In the next conscious minute, her body seemed to glide in the air, as her sight transfixed on the mismatched color patterns of the new room in accordance with all the other passages. _'The lights are on,'_ she thought to herself as she plummeted. _'That sneaky cretin is lying around here...'_

The old man's yelp was lost as the two villains plummeted downward onto the pavement, the steam extending and intensifying the more he fell, the thin clothing layers too useless to cushion the immeasurable sensation of his skeleton breaking under his own weight, with the shattered and split pieces hacking at your innards. Now those were damages he'd have to bunker down for. He'd scream if he knew it'd be painless, but he held in the agony of his body destroying itself, gulping down curses and scolding in exchange for a faster healing.

"So long... as the blood stays...where it should..." he managed to speak amidst the pain, correcting his misshapen arm cocked at an unnatural angle back to its original state. "I'll be good... 'Till I pop a cap... in that bastard's face,"

Netsui's balance faltered as the momentum was defeated by the aces of his sides, dropping to his knees as the twinges of discomfort twisted into weeping spasms, crippling the multi quirk user as his breaths became brutal admonitions of trepidation. The splitting headache drew cold hard lines across the young man's visage, the veins bursting in his forehead thumping as hard as his heart, vehemently impacting at his chest.

 _'Netsui...'_ through the fuzzy world his vision took notice of, the buzzing tone of Akuma's bass resounded in his mind. Between the concerned tones in his scrutiny, a hint of slobbering lust of battle escaped the mental entity's metaphorical lips. _' **Get 'em...** ' _a searing, yet welcomed pain spanned the boy's vulnerable silhouette, the peach colored horns changing to a reddish clay-like hue, sabretooth canines protruding on the corners of his lips as they perforated his tender skin into bleeding cracks the more they grew.

Renown fire scorched the pain away as he perked his head up, brows stitched together in an undecipherable expression. Black overtook his eyes, as the hazel pupils decayed and brightened into a deep crimson as bloody as the forgotten liquid emptying out of his frame.

"They don't deserve... _their quirks_ ," crestfallen traces swam in the usual jovial voice of Shinshi Netsui, inklings of a demonic undertone mixed in a nightmarish amalgam. As soon as the truth was spoken, a powerful force clutched at his heart, sending Netsui into an overdrive as his beastly growl deepened into the realm of the eternal pits. "Their power... _will be_..." his finger dug into the ground as course palms glimmered to life. " _Mine!_ "

Netsui's body bustled with a craving bravado lusting for something to satisfy his primal impulse as he dashed maddeningly towards the brick fissure. He leaped off the beginning of the drop, unknowingly jumped across rows of metal shelves and rails. The wind blasted his at his oculars, forcing tears to crawl out of the corners bu he paid it no mind as they darted to and from every nook and cranny in search of anything that moved. Through the lifeless machinery gearing to work, a stinging pressure pierced his shoulder, grazing his skin. The pang of discomfort was drowned by alert as Netsui create crystals under his feet to dodge the bullets wheezing past his figure.

Landing on his feet, his engaged senses succumbed to his instincts as he rolled off another bullet as it barely missed him and instead caused a pipe to leak steam out. His blackened eyes glared daggers at the old man on the other side with his gun cocked back, his wife beater soiled in debris of pings of blood. His stout leg was curled at an odd angle, cracking and pulling on itself like a self made torture device until it spun into the right place, firmly planted on the ground.

The old man spat at every bullet missed, _tch_ ing in disgust at his own poor aim with smoke coming out of the heated barrel. "Ya got lucky, punk. Good thing I brought two suckers here with me," he unholstered another hidden Desert Eagle, the hollow clip falling off the handle as he smacked another bullet filled clip in and reloaded it with resilient molars. "Now count yer blessin's!"

" _Noo **ooo...**_ " Netsui leaped on top of the pipelines.

* * *

"Abiru... Abiru... Come on, he's gotta be around here somewhere," Kouna's riverbeds of sweat hurdled over his sleek form when he twirled his head around at his current locale, which was indistinguishable from any other place he'd run in or stumbled upon. Yet the walls on this part of the labyrinth were much more prone to paint shedding than all others, and the heat entwined with his scales like a thick blanket in the summer, odor like dirty water in mist form. He swatted the bellowing steam away from his sight, curling around his fingertips before fading to nothingness, as he approached an unguarded stair case leading deeper underground.

Kouna's hand tentatively prodded the rusted steel, testing out the stability as it creaked slightly at his gentle touch. Glancing around his shoulder and greeted only with more steam, the tall boy took a long, drawn breath as he placed a precarious foot on the first step, the pattern coiling under the delicate load. "H-H-Her-r-re g-g-goes n-n-noth-thing..." nerves wracked in his mind, painstakingly crossing each threshold gripping onto the callous railing until the color left his fingertips.

Indents of worry folded on his forehead as sweat run down the smooth creases, azure blue saucers darted erratically from the owner's trembling feet to the steps in parallel pattern, sharp inhales of fresh air entering his system. The staircase felt neglected, crying out for a needed wax and a scrub, so much that some of it caught and stuck to Kouna's damp palms. Segments of steel feel down unceremoniously at the tall boy's death grip, and he found solace at the end of the creaking steps, wherein the gasp he never knew he help came forth like a wake up call. A wake up call that screamed at the top of his lungs, warning him to not proceed any further, along with a sign fixated on the nearby door to complement the instinct.

Raking up the courage to face the unexpected, Kouna filled his lungs with a wavering heave of determination before he twisted the door open and tiptoed inside. The area was devoid of light, with the tall boy only being able to see as far as the radius of the doorway allowed him. His hand at the nearest wall, feeling a peculiar lump facing upward he muttered a silent prayer as he flicked it down.

Rows of overhead bulbs sprung to life, casting brightness and shade on the vicinity, assembled shelves scattered near Kouna's entrance with piles of cardboard boxes stacked on top of the levels, miscellaneous gadgets, items and knickknacks poking out of the top. Scouring further, the maze of pipes flowed on and congregated in this particular field, lines connecting from the walls copulating into massive regulators and _ that expanded as far as bulbous eyes could see. Truly, this was a sight Kouna wasn't familiar with.

 _'Pipes pipes and more pipes. Goodness gracious, am I getting fed up with all these pipes.'_ his bored gaze elevated away from the heated regulators towards the rails and stairwells. The metal wasn't rusted for once. In fact, it was in damn near mint condition, like someone had laid off the janitor midway through cleaning the labyrinth. _'Abiru's gotta be here. I haven't run into him since we split, and I don't recognize this place. Just hope he's not...'_ he gagged slightly at the ominous thought, forgoing his inner monologue.

" _Abiru... Abiru...!_ " Kouna's suppressed calls struggled to carry out towards the object of his worry as they devolved into dulcet, inaudible echoes. " _It's me, Oatari, your..._ " he hesitated, biting his lips at the unspoken word. " _Your friend... gah... come out already! I have no idea where that psychotic girl is... at least gimme a sign you're still alive,"_

As he was inspecting the whereabouts of his friend, a loud _thud_ blew from the eastern wall, resonating unsteady echoes in the epicenter, jolting the tall boy in surprised awe, his heart pounding against his chest. "What the hell was that?!" he yelled out before regretting it, clasped his jaw shut as his pupils compressed to human-like orbs.

"K-... Kou... na..." a breathy voice spawned amidst the mass of pipes covering the corner of the room, along with the sound of a rough landing. The tall boy perked up as a cold flow rushed through his veins that could extinguish the burning heat around. "I-I'm... over here... fuck!" Kouna wondered how he was so lucky to hide away from the masked girl, but the way his voice sounded scared and trembling outranked all other prejudices he held.

"Abiru!" the tall boy vaulted over the pipes and towards the groans filling the void of silence in between the rumbling of the pipes and Kouna's shaky breaths. "Abiru, keep talking! I'm coming," he whipped his smooth head around his current location as he slithered under the procession of tubes filtered to a towering regulator, being mindful not to poke the scalding hot metal. "Can you hear me?"

"Dude... what are.. you doing..." Abiru's hoarse breaths closed in the further Kouna paced, coughs circulating through an assortment of pipes lined up and bending from the wall to the floor. His fear was showing, and it didn't seem like he was in stable condition if the bare naked boy had to surmise. "Sakura, she's... she tricked us..."

"That wasn't Sakura," Kouna admitted half somberly, half stingy. He didn't know if it was the froth, the shock dissipating into nagging throbs on his injured side, or the fact that his clothes were stolen and he was nearly fully nude, but his rancor for the blonde girl boiled pas a healthy amount. Despite this, he held it in. "She's... not here anymore,"

"... she left...?"

"It's a long story," Kouna zoomed in around the corner towards the assorted lines of pipes, a worn out orange sneaker prodding out the hiding place. Crouching sown and slowly inching forward, the boy with buggy pupils combing inside the tiny cave. "Am I glad to see you still intact... mostly,"

Abiru wasn't fairing any better than Kouna; his red jersey and beige, pocketed filled shorts were still within his possession, albeit ripped at the seams and exposing taut chest riddled in constellations of gashes. There was no bruising on his face, indicating that the slashing maniac had done this, there was no doubt in his mind. The damage extended to his droopy face, visceral lashes drawing blood that ran down his left eye. A thought sprung in Kouna's mind, warning him that it wasn't a person they were dealing with, and he couldn't predict how long his own savior would last against her.

Abiru yelped at the sudden conglomerate stings shocking him. " _Gah...!_ I don't care anymore, please..." his lungs deflated then re-inflated in an agonizing instant, reaching a pleading hand out to the tall boy. "Get me... out of here...!"

"Alright, but we need to be quick about this," Kouna closed the gap between the two, wrapping his right arm around to lift Abiru by the belt buckle. The downed teen was bulkier than his associate, so it was a laborious task combined with the fatigue and his protesting wound. "The staircase might get us up and outta here, since it's the only route I haven't been to since we got trapped here, but I don't know where-"

Rapid fire bursts ruptured through the air bringing their focus to a singular spot. An imperceptible force impacted the cave Abiru sat in, pent up froth blasting from the holes, forcing their senses to act as the two cowered in fear, Kouna shielding his injured companion.

Kouna took initiative as he dared to glance up, pinpricks gaping at the exact location where the unknown small object was lodged. Had he been any slower, that force would've taken one of them with it.

"Was that... a gun shot?" the alert in Abiru's tone and visage was palpable, gazing at the only other person he could trust in the crossfire.

"Shit," Kouna cursed, abruptly standing and rushing the two of them towards the nearest staircase without another second of thought. "They're here!"

"Who's here...?" Abiru attempted to keep up with the pace, yet he ended up getting dragged along.

"All of them," he simply said, concentrating on carrying his friend up heated steps.

"Them? ... There's more than... one?"

"See, told you it was a long story," he commented offhandedly. "Just stay quiet. You don't want them to find us, do you?" Abiru frantically shook his head. "Good. Now help me find the exit," with that, and with steady steps sending soft waves of clanging steel through the noise of avid conflict. The stress and struggle caused sweat to drop from Kouna's as his arms fumbled to hoist Abiru's weight.

"Look, I think I see a way out," Abiru pointed out, bearing a sluggish hand to the adjacent door fitted into the path they followed."Finally! I can leave this shitty hellhole,"

"Alright, calm down. You still need me to get out," Kouna bitterly stated. "You're welcome,"

"Yeah, yeah, no problem dude. Leave it to me, I owe you a favor after this,"

"Now where have I heard that before..." he muttered to himself. _Clangs,_ wheezing, and a massive metal tear gathered on the pit below them, jolting the duo into accelerating their already hushed pace to freedom. Like a rattling battlecry, the machines roared as they pelted the volatile froth at every direction, but the fleeing companions paid it no mind. The exit stood around the corner, the short distance at their current height a skyline of heated clouds hazing their sight.

Kouna's focus was pried off the door as his round ears harked steel tipped footsteps closing in on them. His bulged pupils turned to pinpricks at the familiarity. Those same steps batted against the mechanical entropies, bellowing the the pipes and pieces out of their place, discarding them aside without a second thought, pushing Kouna over the edge. "C'mon, they know were here! We gotta hurry!"

"Can't... go... any faster..." Abiru limped on top of Kouna's arm crutch, dragging his right foot along the rails. "Too... fucked up... to walk..."

"Shit..." cursing under his breath, the tall boy glanced to his side under him. The faint silhouette had rushed across the room, vaulting off the large containers circling the area as it leaped to their locale, lugging a pipe two times larger than them behind it, fazing the heat and steam around him as he flew past at breakneck speed. "Shit shit _shitshitshitshit-_ "

The figure halted on the guarding rails, black and white sneakers squeaking still as he hunched over, the large steel pipe covering their view of the general surroundings. The rails creaked and bent under the sudden and harsh weight, but held on strongly nevertheless. Abiru's face lost all color, his visage reduced to shakes and mumbling fits while Kouna's surprise and dread mutated into remembrance.

" **Duck.** " Netsui ordered in a gravely voice unlike the gentle one Kouna had heard being frantic while the tall boy pretended to be unconscious. One of his eyes had become a red orb surrounded by blackness while the other was its normal hazel and white hue, and it only served to drive the point home of the emergency of the situation. The duo cowered immediately at his command, smoking bullets and white shards ripping the air and grazing the pipe as they marked the wall.

" **Run.** " the imperative Netsui broke their stunned silence with another command, this one seeming to take a larger surplus of restraint to let out. " **I'll protect you.** " he dropped eye contact, refusing to meet their gaze. Kouna cocked his brow, witnessing reddish horns protruding from the layers where his forehead met his hairline, along with his skin tinting slightly

Abiru was more than happy to oblige for the assistance - despite how frightening the boy looked -, but Kouna had to interject. "Listen, I'm sorry but I gotta tell you-"

" **Don't talk! _Just run!_** " his lungs bellowed out the oxygen constraining against him, his normal eye throbbing in redness with each syllable. It blew them aback as they did as they were told, running towards the exit with new vigour brought on by fear and desperation.

Abiru and Kouna moved like never before. Still dragging his foot across he platform all the while carrying the heavier set boy, the duo rushed closer and closer to the exit with Netsui in two functioning as a moving wall, the small light speed pellets welting the large pipe. It must have provided great protection for their savior as well, as it seemed the bullets simply bounced off of it without a care. Despite the weight, the platform did not falter beneath them, and for the slightest moment, Kouna's lips crept into a grin. _'It's about time my luck came back!'_ he smirked inwardly.

" _How many times do I have to say this?!_ " a distinct hiss alerted Netsui away from the bullet barrage. A gust of wind blew past the duo feet, shaking them to their teeth as a devilish presence loomed over the moving wall. They glanced over their shoulders, eyes fixed on 'Sakura', suspended upside down in mid air. " _I won't let you escape!_ " she bawled out in absolute fury, her leg cocked back as a flustering storm made blood drip out of her cuts blending into the slicing winds.

Netsui leaped back with a baleful growl, impending the girl's strike from interrupting Kouna and Abiru's escape route, lacerating the fortified steel in half and into tender flesh, tearing the damp shirt and piercing until it hit his chrome spine. Red tinted winds sprayed the duo as Kouna carried his injured companion forward and to the exit room, relief washing over them as the doors closed behind.

Watching the events unfold, the girl turned to the one responsible for all the trouble she got caught in, and brought down her foot covered in twirling winds, slashing at his shoulder blade. An open hand blocked the foot, sustaining a deep gash through the palm as Netsui tightly shut his digits, digging into her flesh and hearing cracks from inside her leg. She let out a pained yelp as Netsui glared darkly at 'Sakura' over his pulsing shoulder, slinging her overhead weightlessly. Her infirm back broke past the metal platform, shattering the staircase and the hinges it transfixed on, sending her tumbling down to the ground, knocking her out.

Bullets and shards pelted at Netsui's back, cracking bits of his reddened skin like shaving strips, before bouncing entirely off his rapidly regenerating properties. The ravaging teen stood still as the pellets ricocheted back and fro, the mere prickling sensation akin to a light poke a nagging annoyance to growling student. Netsui threw his head back to face the old man shooter as he was reloading his weapons with a flabbergasted visage, legs recoiled against the bars as their veins bulged noticeably on the sweaty uniform.

The old man widened his eyes, his teal irises reduced to needles. "Shoulda pro'lly stopped there," he muttered inconspicuously. Netsui's body rocketed face first towards the old man, smashing the platforms and wall with the shock wave. The old man's spine extended out of his nape like a hook and caught an upper pipeline. It shrunk onto the old man as it yanked him out of harm's way, sending him crashing beneath him and shaking the area around them.

The old man pointed his dual deagles at the detritus, shooting blindly into the smoke, but was deferred by another blur slamming into him and barreling through the engines. Blobs of saliva exited his mouth along with the oxygen departing from his lungs, mucus splattering on concrete and heated pipes, simmering as the rabid boy and the old man landed harshly back down, knocking down shelves of machinery and stacked boxes with them.

Coughing as he collided with the dirt surface, the old man concentrated his efforts in fixing the damage to his skeleton, then making pure ivory shards sheathe his knuckles like spiky brass knuckles. His collar creased as a force pushed him so hard it managed to choke him momentarily. He planted the spikes on the laces, the boy shrilling unnaturally i

Netsui wrenched the old man to his feet, not allowing to cease his coughing fit, the ceiling meeting his sight, before he descended down to earth once more, ten thousand volts of electricity shocking to a standstill. To add insult to injury, the raging boy careened his foot, impacting his stomach with a strength the old man hadn't felt in years. If he could roll over at the plethora and pangs running in his system and scream at nothing, he would. But Netsui had his facial features hooked with a palm, a firm knee to his lower parts disrupting his squirms.

The blurs came to his vision the second he found the power to open his eyes, splitting eyelids to take a look at his assailant. Netsui's breath came out in unchained heaves as frothing as the steam, mouth agape to show off the ever blooming jagged canines, crimson tinted irises lost the black pools around them, fading the sclera into a sickly yellow hue reminiscent of organ failure.

He pulled his free arm up, and the old man was left to wonder where the wound was as Netsui clutched the clean spot to the point his skin paled. Veins threatened pop out of their resting place, staggering throbs palpitating his arm into matching his blistering heartbeat, tightening the threads that imprisoned it. The old man's brows furrowed in disquiet as the beats pulsed against his damp uniform, tearing holes in the polyester and exposing the vermilion tides coursing through the student.

Netsui let out a inhuman snarl as he whipped his dilated muscles back, the darkened blood returning to his digits. Aimed at his cranium, the old man inwardly warned, the motions his wrinkles limbs moved seemed barred by an unknown presence like glass. His eyes darted between his prison and his rival, staring death into him.

In spite of the rage emanating from his form, the glossy vision showed something the old man thought conflicting; a world of hesitation, like another part of himself, a pacifist brat fighting inside the monster that managed to overpower him with ease. The yellow and crimson orbs twitched, the instability in his visage growing uncertain with time. _'Guess the school didn't teach ya,'_

Distracted, the angered Netsui failed to see the pillar of bone bursting out of the old man's wife beater and ramming his unguarded chest, clenching his jagged teeth as he propelled away. The impact left him in a slight daze, unfocused as his impact on the floor broke his train of thought. He refocused his blind hatred on the old man as they hazily stood up, the older man's back facing him.

Netsui's demonic eyes pivoted to slits, the floor cracked under the pressure of prowling the prey. The dust broke out, his arms and legs kicking at at the ground and leaving dents with every pound, vindictively eager to capture him, grasp him, break him underneath the power that consumed him and sway the faults of his life to surface out of his blood vessels, shooting the callous and careless cortex into -

The old man lashed his weapon around in a swift instant, pulling the trigger. Minuscule lead shot through the barrel and hitting Netsui in between his horns. His head jerked back from the exertion, dropping to his rear end as the bullet bounced off but the pained irritation remained.

Gaping at the ceiling, the world spun drunkenly around him, the monotonous hues dimming as they waved by his corneas. His mouth hung open, slobbering foam spilling out like leaking. Netsui spat the warm pool disgusting as he stood up, his feet not finding the right center of gravity, yet he persisted. His vengeful snarl crawled to a temper tantrum as he lazed his growl, his movements slower than previously, and the old man could react appropriately now as he towered over him.

Another shot and another push back caused Netsui to fall to his knees, clutching at his wound. Slowly, his momentum was outdone by the immensity of the burning sensations crackling on his skin. The old man repeated his actions, piercing the downed student's form, tearing away at his uniform, bits and pieces of flesh gouged by the barrage of bullets. It no longer ricocheted, instead Netsui's weakened figure swallowed the bullets whole, one by one the biting chill of the lead accompanied by the smoldering heat scorched his muscles and sewed the lead into his innards.

The clips had finally reached its end, the only sound coming from the muzzle being the empty _clicks._ The old man thought it enough as he let out a breath he never knew he was holding, his trigger finger marked amid the onslaught to calm the beast. He stepped forth towards the student, who look to be on the brink of death yet still sat quietly on his haunches, his long locks of black hair covering his expression and part of his body as it swayed back and forth.

The boy leaned forward, the strength within him to fight back fading into obscurity and oblivion as a massive fatigue overtook him. His form suddenly stopped, a cold, rotund hole jabbing at his thumping forehead, pushing him back in his place. "Heavy fucker, aren'tcha?" he asked rhetorically, removing the empty clip and replacing with a new one from his hip. "Ya shoulda never let yer guard down, kid. Say yer prayers," he pursued his lips into an indignant visage.

"Y-Y..." the bleak words left the bleeding boy's lips along with a trail of blood and mucus. His hands glowed vividly as he tried to speak. " _Your quirk... will be..._ " he coughed dryly, spraying crimson onto the old man's hand. " _Mine..._ "

The old man scoffed. "Keep dreamin'." he pulled the trigger, a rush of torment surged through his cranium, then forcibly succumbing to darkness and the hampered memories of his misdeeds cradled him to unconsciousness.

* * *

 **A/N: "Oatari Kouna" means "Jackpot, Lucky" respectively (Ōatari, Kōun'na) (ain't no way I'm spelling it like that, word for word).**

 **The old man's name will come soon. Be patient.**

 **HEY! You there, reading this! I have a gun! So review this or Imma kill myself!**


	13. Return To Clarity

_Brrrrrr..._

Loosening the tiredness off his eyes was a chore on its own. Like heavy bells pushing them down, Netsui fought off the blurs by blinking repeatedly, the surrounding heat perspiring tears out of the corners of groaned in displeasure. His eyes hurt so much...

 _Brrrrrr..._ _Brrrrrr..._

Drunkenly swinging his arms to wipe the crusty dampness off his brow, he scraped a wet sensation running down his forehead. Mind still returning to the real world, he inspected the cause of the sensation until touched upon a hard lump denting his cranium. A stinging gripe jolted him into a more aware state.

 _Brrrrrr..._ _Brrrrrr..._

The volts of electricity coursing on his head forced his hand away from the damage. With the colors returning to his sight, he finally figured out what the liquid running down his forehead was. Red, thin, pouring, and it hurt when he touched it. Something must've hit him pretty hurt during his unconscious period. What happened to him? How did he get here?

 _Brrrrrr-_

He sluggishly peered down at his pants. "Why's my pocket vibrating?" Netsui fetched for his phone, cringing at the burst of light as his full moon wallpaper appeared. He tentatively cracked a lid to gaze at the screen. "Holy crap, Itsuka called me so many times? How long have I been out?" he asked, astonished, before answering the call.

" _Finally, you picked up! I was starting to get worried,_ " Itsuka sounded both relieved and frustrated on the other line. " _Where were you? Tetsutetsu, Shiozaki and I tried calling you all morning,_ "

"Hey there, Itsuka..." he sheepishly tried to calm her down. "How're you doing-"

" _Don't you 'Itsuka' me, mister!_ " Netsui winced at her animosity. " _We've been calling you for hours! Do you even know how worried I-we were?! We had to wait for the rest of our class to see if they found you anywhere - none of them did -, there was no authoritative figure to inform us here, we got berated by a fricking gate-_ " Netsui heard a soft gasp in the distance. " _\- and it said that you ran off somewhere else in the city, that I'm one hundred percent sure you never been to,"_

Netsui blinked wordlessly at the end of her concerned reprimand. _'Dare I say this...'_ Akuma started, his voice dripping in a sheepish . _'She has a point, against both of us. Now I feel responsible for all of the mess...'_

"You sure that gate got the right student?" Netsui asked, a hint of unease in his tone. A sudden thought came to him regarding the maniacal girl. "I don't mean to sound dismissive, but there was someone else who came after me, I think she had long hair too. Maybe it got confused over who was who?"

" _It said you were making stupid faces._ "

"...Ah..." Netsui winced in embarrassment, rubbing his fingers on the lump on his forehead, clamping on the foreign object. 'Should've kept my mouth shut,'

" _It doesn't matter anymore_ , _I'm just glad you finally picked up. Thought you were lost in the city square and Tetsutetsu was going on and on about how you somehow got involved in the villain invasion aftermath,_ "

"Oh right, the villain invasion thing," Netsui cocked a brow before it spiked, a pang of pain shocking his head. " _OUCH_!" hardened hands pulled the tight lump on the dent.

" _What was that?_ "

"Stubbed my toe. Anyways, tell him no. I wasn't there with 1-A or anyone else for that matter. If I was, Monoma would've said something by now,"

"So, _pretty much what I told him too. Probably why we got the day off. Good thing they got out of there unscathed,"_

"They did, huh?" Netsui sighed, scraping a finger to his temple and painting a stream of red across his finger. The contemplative young student peered at the blood stain in disdain as it soaked into his formerly dried skin like oil The dent throbbed against his chrome cranium, reminding him of his luck as the the hole slowly popped back into place. "Wonder how that feels..." he muttered lowly as to not upset his friend.

" _But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about,_ " Itsuka changed the topic of conversation, much to Netsui's relief. " _I wanted to ask, where are you right now? 'Cause Tetsutetsu, Kodai, Shiozaki and I are in the city too and we thought we could hang out together. What do you say?_ "

" _Tell 'im to to hurry up and meet us at the city square or we'll miss the premieres at Acherin!_ " a gruff sounding boy yelled near Itsuka.

" _Shh! Be patient, Tetsu,_ " she briefly addressed the rude boy before turning back to Netsui. " _Sorry about that. Tetsutetsu is really excited about the movies, he wanted you to join in. If only he wasn't so insistent on it, maybe this would end faster._ " Netsui could feel the stern look she gave their friend. A chuckle escaped his throat.

"Oh man, I haven't been to the movies in years! I'd love to!" Netsui excitedly said, pumping his fist and later regretting it as a sore pricks spiked.

 _'Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no, you won't.'_ Akuma interjected.

'What?! Why not?!'

 _'Take a gander at yourself and tell me you look like you won't be inquired by everyone,'_

And he did, quickly glimpsing at every inch of his damp and tattered figure, his smile diminishing the longer he held the stare. 'Oh, I look like I got into a turf war or something,' he sniffed under his armpit, then gagging at the putrid assault on his nostrils. 'I, uh... really gotta take a shower...'

 _'Among other pressing necessities.'_

 _"_ Ugh, sorry Itsuka-chan, but I have to take a rain check," his face fell as he said that.

" _But, aren't you already here?_ " his friend inquired in confusion.

"Uh..." Netsui struggled to come up with a believable lie. "Not anymore, no! I, uh... was caught in a bit of a... f-f-fight... on my way home,"

 _'Netsui! You're disclosing too much!'_

'You know, you're not helping!'

Itsuka gasped. " _You did?! Oh crap, are you okay?_ " to hear his objectively more mature friend curse, even so lightly was... unexpected, to say the least. Akuma was also taken aback, but he made no comment.

" _Huh? Who's messing with Netsui?! Does he need backup? Where is he?!_ "

" _Should I bring my emergency kit?!_ " from the amount of concern, Netsui made out Shiozaki among the clutter.

" _Shh."_

"Yeah, I'm okay. You guys don't need to come here, it's over already," Netsui stood up hazily, dusting himself off with a free hand, several small foreign objects sliding off the holes in his uniform. "Besides... I'm not in the city anymore so you couldn't reach me anyway," he lied, driving the corners of his lips down.

" _I figured._ " Yui's monotone reverberated through the speaker. " _Still._ "

" _You're... not in the city? But we thought you-_ "

"I was... but, um..." the teen fumbled for an excuse.

 _'You had no money to spend in town, especially when everything is so expensive,'_

"... I didn't have money to blow out, not if it meant I couldn't go home,"

" _You could've still come anyway. I can't speak for everyone, but I wouldn't mind paying for what you wanted, or for a ride home. Or just stick to sight seeing, there are a lot of things we could see at Musutafu,_ " Itsuka happily reasoned with him.

"You'd to that for me?" Netsui's brow popped in utter astonishment. "Why?"

" _We're friends, remember?_ " Itsuka said with a hint of a smirk. " _I mean, you're on a first name basis with everyone since classes started, I would've guessed you were aware,_ "

"Right, right," Netsui sheepishly stated. "Well, kinda late now. I'm already home, cleaning myself up, doing chores and stuff," he bit the inside of his cheek.

" _That's too bad,_ _we could've had so much fun,_ " a sigh was heard somewhere in the group, and Netsui was unable to tell who it came from. " _Oh well, there's always next time. Not the end of the world. I'll quit stalling and let you get on with your day, make sure you relax, okay? You sound like you've been through a lot this morning,_ "

Netsui exasperatedly groaned. "Don't remind me," he combed through a tuft of hair strewn across his face. "I'll see you guys tomorrow then. Have fun,"

" _We will. Oh, hold on..._ " Itsuka stopped talking for a moment, inaudible hushed whispering resounding on the speaker before she returned. " _Tetsu said he'd save you a souvenir,_ "

"Haha! Tell him I said thanks,"

" _Can do_ _. You have fun too, alright?_ "

"Sure, I'll have tons of fun cleaning my house," with a final jovial bout of laughter, the two said their goodbyes to each others, with Itsuka having to pipe down a steel man crying. Netsui ended the call, and sighed in both relief and desperation. "That was hard. Why does it have to be so hard?"

 _'Such is the life we've been cursed with,'_ Akuma sagely incurred. _'Run along now, we needn't waste more time in these slums,'_

"I get it," the demotivated teen began to walk to the exit door, a deep disappointed frown etched into his features. "Can't wait to hear how hobo-like I am... Gonna be hard to cover these holes, though,"

* * *

A yawn made its way out of his young lips as he stretched the tiredness out of his body. His body - mostly his legs and face - felt sore as he came to reality, like his developing limps ran a marathon without a single break. He wiped the remaining sleep out of his eyes with a free arm. He cracked his eyes open, the blurriness fading to focus on the environment around him, which was dark in contrast making it harder to discern what kind of room he was in. The moonlight shined through the window, the azure waves washing over the darkness to show off the wooden surface below him.

He fidgeted in his bouncy seat, which caused a realization to appear in his mind; this didn't feel like a street pavement, it wasn't cold, hard, nor did it pound at his nerves. It was soft, fluffy, elastic... warm. It was odd to him. This was the softest, warmest he had ever been in his life. The fabric hugging him was warmer than the feeling Akuma gave him when he was freezing at night. Netsui could collapse in the snug sheets, melt into the threads and forget the world exists, but his only friend had been quiet for a moment too long for his comfort.

 _'Netsui-kun! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?'_ Akuma's worried tone bellowed inside the young man. _'Tell me immediately so I can remedy you!'_

Netsui gasped inwardly. 'Akuma! You're back!' his inner voice sounded so jovial and happy Akuma couldn't but crack a slight 'smile'. 'I was so scared you went away and wouldn't come back, but now you're here!'

 _'It's good to see you as well, my friend. Even for a warrior like myself, that was most certainly a frightening experience. I'm simply glad you are one resilient child, or well I would have not even dared ask you how you were, I would activate your regeneration quirk the second I felt something troubling,'_

Netsui's grin widened. 'Aww, thank you Akuma! Don't forget to take care of yourself too, okay?'

Akuma cocked a curious brow. _'Nestui, you are aware I have no physical form, correct?'_

'So?' Netsu asked innocently, tilting his head.

Akuma 'blinked' with a vacant expression, before he burst into hearty laughter. _'Ah! You are too precious, my friend!'_

Netsui closed his eyes softly as he absorbed in the brief moment of calming sanity, trickling hints of sincere giggles to travel the area. His sore ears no longer rang with the ravaging shower torrents, onerous thoughts splitting his cranium in two were reduced to mellifluous tranquility cracking in the city's underbelly. The regenerative properties of his power gnawed at the most raw body parts and innards, yet he made no noise in protest, no moan of comfort. In light of the fracas he dealt with for years on end, he'd take this over anything hell threw at him.

Akuma sighed silently to himself as 'held' Netsui's juvenile figure in his own way. Such sweet innocent wrapped around faded scars made him revel in his fury against the God responsible for cursing the little boy with this life. Netsui hummed under his makeshift touch, laying his head on the shoulder he coursed his presence to, and for the slightest second, the mental entity felt his own arm mellowing with warmth, and his rage dulling into awe. He 'blinked' wordlessly at the little boy snuggling up to the his shoulder. Akuma opened his mouth, to warn his best friend of his ridiculous pose - yet admittedly adorable -, but he digressed, letting the moment last.

Knocks came from the door on the other end of the dimly lit room, breaking Netsui's docile mood as it peaked into panic, bringing the sheets to cover his quivering lower lip. The door creaked opened slightly as a pleated hand nudged it to stop, a column of light shining on the wall with a silhouette shadowing its presence. "Um, hello there," a delicate female voice spoke behind the door, the gentle tone demonstrating lack of threat. Netsui did not answer all the same. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, you sound like you're having in there,"

An anxious lump formed on the top of his throat, tickling his uvula with every attempting to swallow it down. Netsui's breaths came in heavy klaxons out of his nostrils, sharply whistling as they hasted. _'Netsui-kun, calm yourself. I don't believe this one is trying to hurt you,'_ Akuma's words settled in to his child psyche, wavering his breaths to slow sobs. The pit in his stomach, however, still sent pangs at his core.

"Is it okay if I come in?" the woman spoke softly and invitingly, the shadow crouching to meet at his eye level. "I can come back later if you want. Only needed to know if you were feeling better,"

"..." Netsui shrunk quietly into the covers.

 _'Repeat after me,'_ the mental entity said patiently. With a nod, Akuma continued. _'Yes, ma'am. I'm fine. Just feeling kind of sleepy.'_

"Y-Yes, ma'am," Netsui hesitantly did as was told. "I'm fine. Just feeling kind of sleepy," he mumbled as he replied, his tone barely above a whisper cutting through the awkward silence.

"Well, that's normal," an amiable giggle escaped her lips, easing Netsui's mind. "It is two thirty five at night, after all. Who wouldn't be?"

 _'It is?'_

"It is?" Netsui repeated his friend's words, curiosity engrossing his mind.

"Of course, see?" a finger poked out of the gap, pointing at the night sky through the window.

"Oh... haha... right." he awkwardly said, coughing into his hand as silence overtook between the two physical beings. Nerve wracking seconds turned to unbearable minutes as the young boy tapped at the end of the sheets in boredom, though he dared not to vocalize it out of fear of the unknown.

The woman broke the lulling night time. "Mind if I come in?" she offered in consolation.

"... _Mmmmm..._ " he unsettled young boy fidgeted in his seat, pulling slightly away from the door. His visage twisted into discomfort as he locked eyes with the floor boards.

 _'You don't have to compromise with her, my friend,'_ Akuma sensed his friend's concerns as they magnified his own. It's only been a short while since they've had a taste of freedom, piling more unnerving concepts would be counter-productive to the young man's growth. The panic already made him so stiff that he couldn't control his subtle shaking. _'There will always be tomorrow. We have time now. If you're not feeling well, maybe resting for the-'_

'No.' Akuma's thought process came to a grinding halt as his 'eyes' widened at his friend's unexpected assertiveness. "Y-You can c-come in...m-m-ma'am,"

"Thank you, young man," she gratefully stated, placing her unladen palm on the plastic doorknob. "I'm coming in now, alright?"

He nodded, bravado leveling over his worries. "Okay."

Lightly and with no sudden motions, the door to the room creaked further as the silhouette and light expanded into the darkness. multi quirked clutched at the sheets as a protective shield, the young boy's eyes knitted into alert, but were quickly swayed at the sight of the woman.

"Hello there, young man," she greeted him, her smile getting impossibly wider as she motioned to herself with a frail hand. "I'm Geto Shikabe. I hope my bed is to your liking, don't want you feeling cranky so soon,"

Netsui's brows perked up as he looked down at the bleached covers, beads of sweat and dirt dampening the otherwise pristine sheets. He gaped at the elderly woman peculiarly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh, don't fret none, deary. It's nothing that a good old fashioned tub scrub can't fix," Netsui let out a suppressed at her speech. "I've been meaning to get it washed up anyway," her aged eyes glimmered along with her contagious, positive attitude. "You look better than you did when you barged in. Thank goodness that hero came when he did. I can't begin to imagine what you were running from when you two bumped into each other. At least to didn't have any bruises or cuts on you,"

His merry grin was pulled back into a confused frown. "But... why?"

"Why what, dear?"

"Why would you... help me?" he inched closer to her face, confusion palpable on his face. "You don't know me..."

Geto looked at him like deer in the headlights. "Well, you see deary, when less fortunate children like you get dropped off on my doorstep, it's my job and honor to take them in and give them a place they can call home," when she finished, she looked away, downtrodden. "Even if it is for a short time,"

"Dropped... off?" the words stumbled out of the young boy, trailing into fuzzy memories that recounted the most recent events he witnessed.

"Oh yes, thank you for reminding me!" she beamed. "A hero dropped you off while he was out during his patrol, and he came to me as soon as fast as his boots let him. That strapping young man was so concerned over your health, I nearly thought you two knew each other. Ah, I wish I took that picture when I had the chance..."

"He... he did?" the corner of his lips crept into a small grin.

"Of course he did! You needed help, and he helped you. That's what a hero does, you know? People like that don't come around very often, I should know,"

He furrowed his brow. "...Hero?"

"You're..." she paused, gazing at Netsui's puzzled visage with a dumbfounded expression. "You're not from around here, are you deary?"

His eyes fell, landing on the covers as he twiddling his thumbs. Shaking his head no, Netsui spared her a quick glance before returning to his nervously twitching digits.

The realization wandered through the air like a note dandling in Geto didn't press on. Instead, she offered solace through a melodious voice. "Hey, it's okay. You're not the first child I've seen who was a stranger to these parts and you won't be the last," she informed him with a twinge of pride. "So, can I hear the name of this cute little stranger in my bed?"

"..." the boy took a deep breath. "Netsui."

"That's a very cute name. Good to meet you, Netsui deary,"

"Can..." he broke eye contact with her. "Can I call you... Shikabe?"

"Aww, you're so sweet," Shikabe ruffled Netsui's stuffy hair out of place. "I'd like that,"

"Hehe!" Netsui giggle at the affection, cracking his lips open into a jovial cheer. "Thank you, Shikabe-sama,"

"I'm only doing what I can with what I got," she stood up from her seat and walked to the door to leave the boy to rest. She peaked over her shoulder one last time. "Oh, I almost forgot! Welcome to the Otome Orphanage, Netsui-kun. If there's anything you want, I'll be down the hall,"

* * *

 **A/N: Geto Shikabe = "Gate, Shield, Wall"**

 **And that's the end of the first arc, which I think I'll dub "Hidden Outcasts Arc" - a neat little closure to the prologue that was totally planned from the very start...**

 **... Shut up.**

 **Also, some of you may have been wondering about the break, followed by two chapter in the span of a couple of days. Well, the thing is, I didn't feel likewriting at first, and in the process of writing "Martyrs" I accidentally wrote this one too. That's it.**

 **I don't know how that works either.**

 **Anyways, stay tuned for the Tournament Arc, where the canon divergence begins. Till then, don't forget to review!**


	14. Rigged Competition

**A/N: Thank you Ryujomaru15 for the review. I live for another day thanks to you!**

 **This chapter shall be the start of the Tournament arc, which will disclose some plot points brought forth in the last arc regarding Netsui's presence in the canon. Of course, such implications can and will change aspects of the original, some more than others, although right now I can only think of things that will predominantly affect class 1-B.**

 **Now, with that out of the way, for the next god knows how long, who wants to be sad?**

 **No one?**

 **Well, fuck you then. Read.**

* * *

The promise of a better tomorrow didn't come for the mentally exhausted teen. Netsui kicked back at his seat, the feeling of regulated U.A. school attire foreign to his senses as he languidly closed his eyes. Hot breath escaped past gritted teeth, his arms swinging at his sides as the morning homeroom had finished some minutes ago - the young man couldn't place the time for the life of him -, and Blood-sensei left through the door first to deal with some urgent faculty business about 1-A, meaning usual unsupervised classroom behavior.

Idle chatter and tattle tales around him turned to white noise, a pressing force on the top of his temples. He raised a swinging hand to rub at the ghostly ache, the skin smooth and normal as ever, though the everlasting sensation of tenderness resided still despite recovery. His body was more or less perfectly fine, no side effects from having it torn to shreds by waves of bullets, yet the small migraine called him to attention.

Netsui groaned silently. 'Everyone's so focused on what happened to class 1-A they don't even know of yesterday's kidnapping, probably.'

 _'Yes, albeit sad to say it is quite fortunate the media is giving the villain invasion more attention than the heinous amount of murders yesterday,'_ Akuma said, though a hint of a head shake was prominent. _'Their waffling priorities, for once, have worked in our favor, if it can even be called that. Even so, a public statement from those two you managed to save would give me some peace of_ _mind,'_

'For me, I just hope they got out okay,' Netsui sighed, cracking open his eyes to look at... a pair of steel irises grinning madly from ear to ear. Needless to say, the unsuspecting student spat at Tetsutetsu in petrified shock.

"Surprise!" Tetsu hollered, waving around an arm to greet his friends while the other was hidden behind him, who was currently in the middle of an afflicting coughing fit. The metallic boy paid no attention to his friend's manners. " _Yeah!_ Blew you right outta the water!"

Netsui cleared his raspy throat, addressing Tetsu with an annoyed look. "Was that really necessary?"

"Hehe, sorry about that," he said, though the intent was slightly lost with a content still plastered on his features. "Just wanted to add a little something extra with the present I got you,"

"Present?" Netsui inquired, an arched brow popping.

"Did you forget? Yesterday, I told Kendo-san to tell you I was getting you a souvenir, remember?"

"Oh that? You were serious about that?" the long haired student asked honestly.

"Well _duh_!" ' _How hotheaded!_ ' "What, this your first time getting a present or something?" a smirk grew across his lips, though his small irises still held a very Tetsu-passion within.

"From other people other than my dad, yeah," Netsui answered in a matter-of-factly. "No one ever gave me anything. Then again, I wasn't that good of a man to merit it..."

Tetsu gasped sharply, his smirk instantly disappearing from his visage and replaced with utter shock. He lost his composure, standing completely still in front of his friend, the awkward silence shifting the conversation. Netsui darted to his side as his astonished gape became too overbearing.

"No... presents...?" Tetsu broke the silence in a tone barely above a whisper. Netsui responded with a blank shake of the head. Tetsu pulled his head back, wiping away tears that had welled up in his eyes all of the sudden, much to the long haired student's confusion. "I... I never heard something so sad in my life, bro..." he whipped his hidden hand from behind his back, jolting Netsui into raising his hand defensively.

"Please! Let me be your first!" Tetsu declared, though from the conviction in his words it sounded like a confession. A waft of messy white hair contrasted by a vantablack plopped its head off its sleeping position, staring oddly at the duo.

Netsui lowered his hands to take what his friend was offering him. In his shaky palm, an intricate plastic model of a tall man stood, a hero according to his pose and crimson cape propped up by a grey-blue pillar keeping the illusions of winds bellowing against the hero. His bulbous biceps crossed across his pectoral muscles as the hero held his head to the skies. Overall, it was pretty generic looking if Netsui had to say.

"It's-"

"The most awesome, badass Crimson Riot figure I have ever seen in my damn life!" Tetsutetsu more than happily stated, the shine in his eyes glowing the more highly he spoke. "When I saw it, I knew I needed to have it for my collection-"

 _'That's concerning,'_

"- but then I heard you got into a bit of a tussle while we were out, and I thought you needed something to take the edge off. Then I remember you had close connections to Crimson Riot, got a bit jealous and bought this for you,"

"Wow. You really like him, huh?" he asked sheepishly, though part of him was asking how he knew of his fight. Or if Tetsu knew how serious it actually was.

"Are you kidding me, man?! His whole manly guts are the reason why I want to be a hero in the first place, I owe him my whole life!"

"Well, I'll be sure to tell him that, but..." he winced as he was forced to tell him the truth for once. "I'm actually not that big of a fan of Crimson Riot,"

"What?!"

"Not really, no. I just know the guy, is all,"

"So modest! So lucky...!" Tetsutetsu bit the back of his hand as tears welled up in his eyes, Netsui looked at him with a sheepish visage. The metal boy took a deep breath before continuing. "Keep it. I want you to have it as a way of me telling you how cool you are, and how much our bond means to me, man!"

"That's..." a little sob manifested in his throat, teetering his vocals into a whimper but the multi quirked student caught it in time, swallowing the lump. "...so nice... thanks dude,"

"I knew you'd like it, bro. This way, we can both be Crimson Bros together, forever, how 'bout it?" before Netsui could question the title any further, Tetsu planted a rough elbow on his friend's table, an open hand cranked towards him. "Crimson Bros?!"

Netsui's eyes darted between Tetsu's ardent grin and his tough looking clawed hand, blinking as the information processed in his mind. He let out a wholehearted bout of laughter. "Hell, why not?"

Netsui met the strong boy's hand with his own, confusing the rest of the class as they began assuming the two started an arm wrestling competition. Honenuki and Awase had approached the duo, demanding they would go against the winner, though the opening of the classroom door broke their efforts, rushing back to their seats in a hurry alongside the other calmer students. Netsui fit the Crimson Riot model on his backpack to the best of his ability.

"Excuse both of my absences, class," Blood king-sensei passed through the door, his eyes furrowing further than usual. "There was an emergency two days ago, and today I was supposed to quickly fill in for another teacher, but it seems he got back up without telling the faculty... again..." their teacher stated tiredly, muttering something along the lines of ' _Stubborn_ ' and ' _Nightwalker_ ', or so the class heard, as he reached to sit down at his desk.

"Anyways, as I was saying, I hope you all had a very productive day off yesterday," the class nodded in unison, a pleasant smile etched onto everyone's features, with the exception of one, more forced than others. Blood King noticed him with a quirked brow but resumed with his speech. "Good. You'll need all the help you can get with the U.A Sports Festival approaching,"

As Blood King expected, the classroom had erupted into loud cheers and jovial chatter, nearly knocking some chairs and desks down from the zeal, but an authoritative hand up caused them to sit back down and keep quiet, to the relief of a bundle of messy white hair holding its head with an arm.

"It is? _Already_?! Holy shit!"

"Awase! Language!"

"Ah! Damn, pardon my french!" the spiky haired boy shrunk slightly into his chair. "Got too ahead of myself there. Gotta say though, having seen the Sports Festival every year since I was a kid," Awase brought a hand to his chin, turning to Honenuki who sat beside him. "It feels even better to be on the other side of the action. Especially when adding class competition to the mix,"

"Oh yeah, I reckoned the festival would do that for us first years. It wouldn't be the biggest event of the country if it meant it'd pull back punches," Honenuki thought out loud. "Just try not to make too big a fuss when the crowd recognizes me over you,"

"As long as ya don't whine when they stop after I kick the living crap outta ya," a cocky smirk spread through his lips, though with apprehension because of Blood King burning a searing hole behind his neck.

"Geez, the mouth on you. Looking forward to beat it out of you," Honenuki clenched a determined fist in front of his face.

"What, ya jealous that I got one?"

Honenuki gave a deadpanned look. "That was a low blow."

"Sorry..."

"Yes, yes, I understand - this'll be your chance to show the pros not only what you're capable of so you can get a name for yourselves, but also it raises the stakes the academy throws at its students while providing entertainment for the rest for Japan," he explained as his students ate at his every word. "But please try to remember the themes I told you on the very first day - as you may know, the Sports Festival is meant to substitute the Olympics, so besides athletics and skill, quirks will also be a prerequisite, meaning the standard is incomparable with the current stakes,"

"The Pro Heroes, the faculty, the media, basically the entire world will be watching you all compete this year, and I heard from the Principal this year's festival anticipation is off the charts,"

"Th-Th-The... the whole... w-w-w-wor-r-rld...?" a quiet panic instilled inside of Nirengeki as his pupils beat in his irises asymetrically. A hairy arm rested stiffly on his back, and the nervous couldn't find the strength to pull away.

With all that said, a hand shot up from the side of the class, and Blood King addressed it. "Shoot,"

Monoma stood up from his chair, his trademark pretentious grin gracing his visage. "Would it be safe to assume a good portion of the spotlight will be on the first years?" he asked with one hundred percent sincerity, the rest of the class giving a confused look. However, as they darted to Blood King's serious expression, hinting at a bit of truth to the odd question, their confusion dropped.

"Hmmm. Yes, I'm afraid so," Blood King crossed his finger together above the desk, resting his face on it as memories of the emergency surged in his mind. "I would like to say it's fortunate, but you can all figure out why. With the recent villain infiltration, the media saw the 1-A students being mostly unscathed as an immeasurable success for the heroes, which explains the spike in anticipation from last years'. Of course, with the Sports Festival so close to that incident, they saw the opportunity and..."

"Well, you can see where this is going," Blood King ended with a rhythmic digits tapping on the secretary, awaiting for the cumbersome situation to sink in to his students' heads. "As it stands now, the other heroics class is running miles ahead of us in terms of progression and publicity, a difference which if the media ends up noticing, won't win us a good overall image,"

"So, in other words," Netsui began after a moment of silence, twirling a pencil in his fingers. "Everyone and their mother's going to be focusing on Class 1-A specifically. Can already see the headlines regarding the festival already - the first years front and center,"

"And we'll just be seen as the background decorations," Tetsu added, slumping his anguished form on the desk, rubbing his temples as he gritted his jagged teeth. "At best. Like our training results haven't been bad enough..."

"Bad news on top of bad news, nonstop," Togaru remarked, his expression fallen as his insecurities surfaced. "I can't seem to get rid of this damned fate. Everything is trying so hard to throw me under the bus,"

"At least we're under the bus together," from his fidgeting position facing the wood of his desk, Nirengeki meekly said. "We have nothing to lose, so the only way is up... r-r-right?"

"Listen to yourselves!" Itsuka spoke up, catching the attention of her downtrodden peers. "That shouldn't justify slacking off now! Not at a time like this, when we need to be the most hopeful and put ourselves forward, and when we still had our dreams to guide us," she planted her palms firmly in front of her, drawing more than their attention to her. "What happened to 1-A was awful and the aftermath is affecting us, yes, but do you want to prove them right? To not respect us the same as the rest of students in the heroics course?"

The question pervaded in the air with an eerie truth if uttered would collapse the narrative the uncertainties built. Unable to vocalize or criticize the Class President, they simply resorted to scratching the back of their napes sheepishly, the reprimand settling in. Netsui, at the mention of his friends referring to dreams, caused his interest to spike. It sounded so much like the pick-me-up for him during the first day after school, but it cut deeper. He fondly smiled.

"That's what I thought. Hold your chin up high and go at your goals with all your ambition. Don't lose yourselves or you'll regret it for the rest of the school year," she sat down politely, her determined composure remaining and attesting to her title. The class nodded slowly as their cathartic resolve flowed back to them in unison.

"Kendo is absolutely correct," Blood King said, a hint of pride in his tone. "Now's your chance to make a name for yourselves and your skills to the world regardless, I suggest you take it as soon as possible, or you won't get another one until next year and the year after. Since the festival won't come for next week, you'll have plenty of time to catch up with the current bar," he stood up from his secretary, a curled fist drove towards the class. "Be strong as you head forward into the next challenge. Support one another throughout your ordeals as best as all of you can manage and-"

"Oh, I forgot," Kan-sensei slammed his palm against his forehead, though a knowing smirk crossed his lips. "What was U.A's motto again?"

The class took this opportunity to bellow out their determination.

" _PLUS ULTRA!_ "

"There it is," Kan smiled as wide as his swelled pride.

* * *

The bell rung as the fourth period ended. Midnight exited the classroom for her noonday break, leaving behind her a class full of exhilarated albeit hesitant students, who had yet to leave for lunch break. There was too much on their mind to concern themselves with food as they cleaned up their desks.

"I'm pumped! I'm _pumped_!" Tetsutetsu flexed his arm like he was pumping iron. He turned to Netsui with hot blooded thrill. "Are you pumped, cause I'm pumped!"

"I can see that," Netsui said with a slight chuckle, amused by his passionate friend's antics, making room in his purple backpack to organize his school material, a task made difficult thanks to a certain present. 'Man, I shoulda asked him to give me the model after school. Too late now, hope I don't break it,' "Not too long ago you were depressed 'cause you thought you couldn't show off, now you're showing off. Itsuka really got to you, huh?"

His lung kicked at his chest with the force of his righteous laughter. "Like you wouldn't believe, bro! She kicked my ass, she's got my respect!"

' _Men like you, Tetsutetsu, make me gobbsmacked...'_

"I knew giving up my vote for her was a great idea. You gotta feel the same way, don'tcha?"

"Yeah, I can believe that," he said, trying not to be irritated at the futility of his efforts to not tighten the threads of his backpack as he slung it onto his back over one shoulder. "Why wouldn't I feel the same, though, with all that's been going on? Then again, do you honestly think I'd be a better choice as the President?" He gave his steel friend a look.

Tetsu looked up at the ceiling at the thought, images of President Shinshi going through his mind bringing to winces. "Guess you're right. No offense, but you'd probably be overly foreboding with how straight-forward you are,"

"Exactly," Netsui nodded curtly in agreement, his expression turning blank for an instant. "Probably..."

"Hey hey! You ain't gonna hear any crap from me," Tetsu waved his arms in defense, noticing his friend's mood swing. "You're my bro, I wouldn't even think about doing that to you,"

"No, no, you're welcome to do that," Netsui raised his own hand, inhaling a deep breath. "Hate to admit this, but I haven't always been this nice a guy as you think. If there's anything about me you'd rather not deal with, tell me. I have to take it, warts and all,"

"I..." for the umpteenth time today, Tetsu's visage froze as tears welled up in his eyes. " _Such a manly spirit..._ I will! For you, my manly bro!"

' _We'll see,'_

Netsui offered an honest and not-awkward-at-all smile. "Thanks, you too,"

"Hey, um, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Itsuka happily trotted beside the duo alongside a blank Yui and Komori who they weren't if they met eye contact because of her bangs. "We were just about to catch the early lunch special. You guys wanna come with?"

"Oh yes, please. I'm famished," as Netsui said this, his belly rumbled with an intensity that jolted Komori into hiding behind the oblivious - or simply not caring - Yui. "Might actually go for thirds this time,"

"Man, I'd love to just pound my protein with you guys, but I'm gonna have to decline," Tetsu said, shaking his head. "'Ppreciate the gesture though,"

"Oh come on, dude, why don't you wanna eat with your pals?" Netsui playfully punched Tetsu's shoulder, and the steel boy felt a pain spike which he refused to show. "What happened to Crimson Bros all of the sudden?"

"I know! But I need all the time I have to prepare for the Sports Festival, or else I'll get pummeled by you guys, or god forbid, Class 1-A!" Tetsu exclaimed

Netsui cocked a brow. "I'm pretty we aren't gonna fight each other right off the bat. At least, I think we are-"

"Not like that," Tetsu interrupted, pointing a steel finger between Netsui and Itsuka. "Like, getting upstaged, that sorta deal. Don't mean to insult you or nothing, but being shadowed by you kinda made me feel... like a backup plan, know what I mean. I figure I take your words to heart and use all my free time available to train, so I can show everyone that I can!"

Netsui and Itsuka blinked simultaneously, darting their eyes to meet each other in awe before returning to their hotheaded friend. "You sure?" Netsui started. "Lunch without you isn't gonna be quite the same,"

"Yeah, and we can make plans to train together later, if you want. We time until the festival, don't we?" Itsuka offered. All of her friends nodded.

"I'm sorry, but if I'm to discover my fighting spirit, then sacrifices hafta be made. I can't always be relying on you guys to help me out, I have to learn to fend for myself. I wouldn't be deserving of having guts if I did," the steel boy walked around the group, clenching his fists by his side with a deep, yet overly dramatic frown. However, he gazed up at them with a new shine in his metalic visage. "'Sides, we'll have plenty of other times to gorge on gourmet meals,"

Netsui watched the gleam in his eyes slide across his tough exterior like the ambition inside him was too much to keep in, resulting in a tiny segment radiant off his features. _'For such a valorous dolt, one must admit; this young man has the bearings of a front line soldier,'_ Akuma mused.

Netsui grinned. "You know what? You do you, dude. Not gonna stall you anymore than I have to, you sound like you've been thinking about this for a while,"

"Ditto," Itsuka spoke as Yui and Komori nodded behind her. "I'll definitely be disappointed that you will be alone, but I won't stop you from dreaming. Make sure you eat well, don't wanna find out you're skipping meals!"

"Ha! No problem, I brought my own lunch!" he fetched a crude, see through Tupperware containing pig liver filled with spinach. Komori looked at it blankly, then fainting on top of Yui, who's expression had not moved an inch. "Anyways, I'll se ya when I see ya. Feel free to join if you want, I'll be outside near the trees,"

"Nah, I'm good," Netsui waved as Tetsu paced further and further down the hall until he was but a speck in his line of sight. "Really hope he finds his fighting spirit, god knows he needs it,"

"I hope so too,"

"Oh well, enough about that already!" Netsui began walking backwards, front still turned to his girl friends. "I'm dying to know what this lunch special is all about. Oh, I bet it's chicken-"

"Um, Netsui..." Itsuka tried to call out to him.

"No, beef. _Oooooh~_ , I can't get enough of the lunch guy's beef!" out of the corner of his agape mouth, Netsui began salivating at the prospects.

"It is beef but Netsui, watch where you're going." she reached out a hand for him to see.

 _'I haven't had the taste of fresh hunt in forever,'_

"I have no idea what that means, but it sounds _sooooo_ good!" too entranced by the images of gourmet cooking, Netsui failed to see the two walking towards him.

"Netsui! You're gonna hit-" but it was too late. With Netsui's rough exterior, it felt like bumping into a brick wall at moderate speeds as the pink girl fell down on her haunches, while Netsui only sensing a light tap hit his back. "-... oh dear."

"Eeep!"

'Oh crap! I hit someone!' Netsui thought in a panic as he whipped around to help up the victim of his incompetence. "I'm so sorry! I should've seen where I was going instead of...of..." he paused as he witnessed the girl on the ground.

 _'Shit...'_

Fully hued in a pink complexion, the girl rubbed at the soreness on her head, wincing as the needles prickled near where her twisted horns were located, surrounded by pink hair strewn in all directions. A floating set of school clothes asked her if she was alright, and the pink girl nodded in return, turning her gaze to peer up at the looming man that caused her to crash. She had pure black sclera with yellow irises, staring at the trembling and profusely sweating boy curiously.

 _'Netsui, my friend, remain calm and steady,'_ Netsui failed to do as was told, the sweat dropping down his brows, inciting more scrutiny from all the girls. 'It _doesn't seem she recognizes you, so plan your next move carefully,'_ Akuma slowly instructed, understand perfectly the gravity of the incident in front of them.

And so, Netsui did the only thing that came to his mind.

"TETSU!" he yelled out at the top of his lungs, sprinting away from the pink and transparent girl, blowing all of the bystanders away with his immense speed. "WAIT FOR MEEEEEE!" Itsuka, Yui, Komori and the girls became unable to see him in an instant as the dust accumulated the more he ran. The transparent girl offered a sleeve to pink girl, which she gladly took as they resumed their walk to the cafeteria, leaving the other girls flabbergasted - and partially unconscious.

"Wow." Yui said in nonchalant wonder, while her only conscious friend watched with twitching brows. A small smile crept across her lips. "Netsui's fast. Never knew."

* * *

 **A/N: Legitimate question - how many of you started reading this having no idea who All For One was, or began reading this after AFO vs All Might? Just curious.**


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